Traitor's Charade
by NecroPriestess
Summary: To coexist with ghouls was insane. To think of them as 'angels' who punished humans for their sins was just going too far off the deep end for Lily. So when the CCG begins cracking down on the murders surrounding her family, she's more than happy to sell them out for her own personal gain. But at the same time she's still apart of it all, even if she is a traitor...
1. Prologue

**A/N: I realized I needed to show how Shinohara and Juuzou even managed to pick up that it's the church. I really like how I set this up, but let me know if the description is too cliche and boring. Also, if this is your first time reading this expect longer chapters after this one, it is a prologue after all.**

 **Title:** _ **The Bloody Files: A Ghoul's God**_

 **Summary: Shinohara and Juuzou are assigned to a case involving a cult full of humans that worship ghouls as 'angels'. Within the cult is the disillusioned daughter that's more than happy to sell them out for a price. Matters become worse when a binge eating ghouls breaks loose, and human cannibalism becomes common place. Tokyo is beginning to burst at the seams, and time is running out.**

 **Characters: Shinohara Yukinori, Suzuya Juuzou, Oc**

 **Pairings: Eventual Suzuya Juuzou x Oc**

* * *

The room was ensconced in darkness, making it difficult to see. What could be seen looked supernatural, almost out of place in what was supposed to be a school classroom. The white curtains were billowed out thanks to the wind, looking more like a pair of sinister shrine spirits than curtains. The many posters on the wall, which were all the different kanji that a young child was supposed to know, looked more like spider clinging to the walls. It was all enhanced thanks to the blood splattered all over the floors, most of it leaking out of a kneeling corpse who's mouth was twisted open in a silent scream, it's heart was ripped out of the body and in its cold hands. Blood was seeped through what was once a typical business man's suit, and there was holes and rips all through it showing muscles and bones , the skin ripped away or hanging on by mere meaty threads.

Shinohara had seen plenty of grizzly sights before, it was expected of a ghoul investigator, but this was down right disturbing. He glanced over to his young partner, he didn't expect to see anything on the estranged boy's face, however his eyebrows were furrowed and his head tilted to the side. "Did he rip his own heart out?"

A forensic investigator close by snorted. "That's impossible. Didn't you pay any attention in the academy? This was clearly the work of a ghoul."

"A ghoul that wasn't hungry."

Shinohara shook his head and gently tilted the body onto the floor and shifted the clothes, exposing more of the corpse to his partner. There were several patches of skin and muscle missing off the body, most of it coming from the shoulder area, but some came from the stomach and legs.

The boy's red eyes lit up. "They were torturing him."

"Yes they were," The investigator said. "just like all the others."

"Shinohara-san!" A young investigator went up to him, a small card in her hand. "Look, I think I found something."

He took the card from her and read the tiny print, his eyes narrowing as he re-read it to make sure he had it right. "A church?"


	2. File 1

**A/N: Hello everyone! Well, this is my first ever full length story! I really hope you all enjoy it!**

 **Title:** _ **The Bloody Files: A Ghoul's God**_

 **Summary: Shinohara and Juuzou are assigned to a case involving a cult full of humans that worship ghouls as 'angels'. Within the cult is the disillusioned daughter that's more than happy to sell them out for a price. Matters become worse when a binge eating ghouls breaks loose, and human cannibalism becomes common place. Tokyo is beginning to burst at the seams, and time is running out.**

 **Characters: Shinohara Yukinori, Suzuya Juuzou, Oc**

 **Pairings: Eventual Suzuya Juuzou x Oc**

* * *

The monotonous scratching of her mechanical pencil was the only sound in the silent room. Her eyes never looked up from the book close to her side, not even when she finally ran out of notebook paper and had to flip the small book over to a fresh sheet of paper. She absorbed the words in the book, eating them up like they were her first meal in months after nearly being starved to death. She didn't stop, didn't acknowledge anything around her, and barely blinked at all. When she got to the end of her reading, she turned the page, her pencil pausing for only a moment allowing the soreness in her wrist to set in, before the scratching started up again as she absorbed more information. A shadow cast itself over her books and papers, but she didn't look up and just continued working.

"Lily," Her mother's voice was soft, almost as if she was afraid of interrupting. "it's time to go down to the church."

Lily didn't look up from her work, nor did her writing slow. "It's first Tuesday, I don't need to go down there."

A low sigh escaped her mother's mouth, the beginning of a weekly routine coming into place. "Just come and support your father, Lily. He works hard for both our sakes, you can stop studying long enough to do that much, can't you? Besides, you'll hurt your arm and back from writing in that cramped position. Come on."

Lily stopped writing but she didn't look up. Scribbled on her paper were at least twenty different mathematical definitions for Geometry, along with a few written examples of how they were used. Her name was written at the top of her paper in neat Katakana ***** , along with the date and subject. However just under all of that was a small star that had an 80% scribbled next to it in red ink. A harsh reminder that she couldn't take a break, that she had to keep studying, keep absorbing. Her mother gave a low cough, quickly gaining back her daughter's stolen attention. Lily slowly looked up from her grey and white paper, to the colorful face of her mother. Her plump lips were in a pout, her similar grey eyes wet with tears, and her thick eyebrows furrowed. Lily always swore the woman should be an actress and shouldn't wasted her time becoming an architect. Her looks contrasted with the firm words that she had spoken just moments ago, truly some kind of gift.

The girl sighed and pushed her hands against the table, heaving herself off the carpet and into a standing position. Well, it was more of a leaning position since most of her weight was on the low table. It was true she had been cramped the whole time on the floor, her back felt like it would snap if she stood up straight. Her mother didn't seem to notice though, her face morphing into a sunny smile. "Good, now hurry up and get your bible so we can go meet your Daddy!"

The woman whisked out of the small room, shutting the door behind her. Lily's blank expression slowly crumbled into a frown, her eyes trailing back onto her paper, more specifically the bright red reminder.

* * *

Lily was not really a fan of religion. She respected the people who put all their trust into a, hopefully, benevolent being. But putting her trust into something that may or may not want the best for her was never Lily's style. Of course she never told her father, a preacher and missionary, this little thought. As selfish as she was, she wasn't cruel enough to shatter her father's hopes and dreams. Instead she did what she did best; placating him by merely showing up with her bible and sitting in the front row. She didn't even bother to glance down at the red and black words on the page while her father spoke to the congregation. She'd love to say that she just didn't care enough to, that she was above reading something she didn't believe in, but the truth was that she managed to memorize the entire thing.

"Now God sent his angels down to the world," Her father said, his voice booming over them like a storm over a pasture full of sheep. "so that they could be his messengers. They've given so many messages to the most unlikely of people imaginable! Take Mary, a girl to a poor family in Israel. She was told, by a holy angel, that she would give birth to our Lord and Savior! That she would be the one to save the entire human race from damnation, and she was told...by and angel. But angels are never just messengers of good news, because with the good there's always the bad."

His fingers gripped his wooden podium and he leaned forward, his green eyes wide with unbridled passion. "Sometimes we sin against our Creator, and sometimes we need to be punished! And in this day and age, this world filled to the brim with debauchery and stagnation...Well, it makes sense that the angels have turned their backs on us. God announced it was our time to be punished, and so that's what he's having his holy ones doing right now. Damning us! Eating us! Giving us the punishment we deserve! Isn't that right, Holy One?"

Everyone's gaze went towards the back of the small church were three chairs sat. Only one chair was occupied today, and that was by a middle aged man with bright red hair and a serene smile on his pale face. "Yes, Father Mc'Knight. Humans have degenerated into beasts who have no reign over their impulses. A truly sad event that few people have the wisdom to see. I am glad that the humans who have gathered here today have this wisdom, so that they will not fall to ruin like the rest of your race."

The smile tacked onto the end of his sentence was cheesy. It reminded her when her mother would scold her for sneaking into the bacon when she was little. She'd snatch her up and spank her a few times with the belt, and when it was all said and done she'd give a large smile, proclaiming that 'it hurt her more than Lily'. She doubted it was true, and everything pointed to the contrary, but her mother still insisted on it. The shuffling of cloth and squeaking from the cheap plastic chairs dragged her back down to earth. Everyone was getting up, their heads bowed and eyes closed. Lily did the same though she didn't close her eyes. It may have been childish of her, but she loved to look around while everyone was unaware of her doing so. It was like she was in on some kind of secret that no one else knew.

As her father droned in his closing prayer, her grey eyes scanned behind her. Old lady Sato was scratching the rash on her neck, Mr. Owari was leaning against his wife whispering something to her, Ms. Watanabe had her finger crossed, and a pair of red eyes were staring right at her. They were a bright shade of red that contrasted so heavily from the owner's pale skin, that they almost looked unnatural in their face. They stared at each other, neither blinking or even moving for a few moments, before the person grinned. It wasn't a normal smile either, it was the type of smile that a cat usually gave a canary before eating it. Lily turned away from the person so fast she thought her neck would snap, and bowed her head just so she could look inconspicuous. She came to the small church every single week and had never seen that face before. Then again, she had a feeling that most people were not very happy to see that face, especially that twisted smile.

When her father finally said amen only seconds later she nearly ran out the church, ready to make it back home and to her studies, but as she was passing by someone grabbed her uniform blouse. "Lily, could you go up to a convenience store and get your Father and me some snacks?"

It was phrased like a question, and her mother's lips were in their signature pout, but the tone sounded like an order. "But it's dark out..."

Her mother shook her head. "And if you've been praying then nothing bad will happen to you. Here, take my credit card. You should have more than enough to get me some tea and him some juice. Oh! And please don't forget those nuts, I've been craving them all day. Just go ahead and get your father a bag as well, I doubt he'll mind. Okay?"

She took her mother's credit card, a sense of dread filling her bones. "Are you sure that's it?"

Her mother hummed for a moment before tapping Lily's cheek with a manicured nail, making the girl flinch under the light scratch. "Get yourself some water, you look pale."

" 'Kay." She turned on her heel again, her posture going down the toilet as she passed through the crowded church.

"Stay safe, Sweetie!" Her mother's high voice managed to ring over everyone else, as if to try and give her daughter a smidgen of strength to go out and face her fears. A heroic and sweet thing to do, but it only caused Lily to slouch further.

"I'll try."

* * *

Lily huddled into her pink windbreaker, eyes narrowed as she walked along the crowded sidewalk. All around her people were jabbering on their phones, to each other, and even to their pets. Lily had never owned a pet in her life, unless you counted her hair which seemed to have a mind of it's own, but she was sure they couldn't understand human speech. Japanese or otherwise. But the constant talking wasn't the only thing that she hated, the cold kept biting going up her short school skirt and under her wind breaker no matter how much she shifted it around. There was also the pungent smell of the city, it was a nauseating spoiled meat smell one minute, to a smokey and acidic gas the next. All of it made her head hurt and sucked all the energy from her bones. She had no idea why her mother did this to her, knowing she'd rather be at home.

It was probably payback for the all her birthing pains.

She trudged into a convenience store, the cheery bell announcing her arrival to the man behind the counter. He looked up and a smile stretched across his face, making wrinkles appear around his eyes. "Hi, Lily. Is church over?"

Ever since Lily had moved to Japan eight yeas ago, she had always gone up to this convenience store when church let out. And every single time she came the owner, Mr. Watanabe Takashi, spoke to her in English. She wasn't sure if it was because he wanted to improve his own English, or if it was because he just always assumed she didn't understand Japanese, whatever the case was she didn't have the patience for it tonight. She still had to go home and study her Geometry, there was also her Japanese Literature that was just begging to be looked at too, and her art project...She let out a sigh and shoved the irritation into the furthest corner of her mind before addressing the store owner. "Yes. I came to buy some snacks."

The man nodded and went back reading his newspaper. Lily sighed and went to the drink area, getting her mother's favorite brand of tea before grabbing her father some apple juice. Wandering from that aisle she went down a narrow one that was filled with different snacks on both sides. She glanced around, looking for the walnuts that she got her mother last time. She couldn't remember what so special about them, probably BBQ flavored.

She paused by one shelf, her eyes narrowed as she read the tiny bright colored labels. She hated the fonts that most snack companies used, trying to make out the actual wording was harder than it should have been. A giggle sounded behind her, immediately making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Good grief, was she getting scared of toddlers now? She glanced behind her, just to see a pair of large red eyes staring at her. The Cheshire cat grin was still on the thin lips, and even with their swinging casually at their sides, this person looked threatening. Lily usually didn't show that she felt threatened, hell she was proud to say that she always kept up with her composed face, but there was something off about this strange ambiguously gendered person. She blamed their eyes, well and all the red stitching on their body, there was something unsettling about them.

She gripped her wallet a little tighter and swallowed the lump in her throat. As long as she was in a public place then she had no need to worry. Not unless this person was a total nutcase and wanted to get caught. Then again if they were a ghoul they had to worry about the CCG, and who knew when they would show up on the scene. She could imagine it now, her blood splashed all over the person's pale face, her mangled corpse on the floor with the entrails on the shelves. Her mother would cry and binge eat ice-cream after learning how she died, her father would probably feel ashamed and wished she spent more time praying like she was supposed to. Her eyes narrowed slightly at the thought, there was no way she was getting attacked by a ghoul. She needed to study things that actually mattered, not some book that wouldn't impact her grades.

She slowly went to the counter and payed for the drinks, giving up on the hunt for nuts. If her mother wanted a snack she could get her Dad to cook it for her. Takashi rang them up and stuffed them in a plastic bag, taking it up in her sweaty palm she glanced behind her one more time. The person was no longer there, almost making Lily question the sight earlier...Almost. She shook her head and took the bag fully from Takashi. "Thanks."

"You are welcome."

She nodded to him and left the store, the brisk air making a shudder go down her spine. Now all she had to do was run down a block and she would get to the church just fine.

"Boo!" A cold hand pressed itself against her mouth and eyes, dragging her backwards into a hard yet bony body. "I got her Shinohara-san! Look, it was easy too, she wasn't even paying attention!"

Lily didn't even scream, her eyes were just wide and her entire body frozen. Good grief, all she had to do was run and she couldn't even do that.

"That's enough, Juuzou." A rough voice called." Let her go, she isn't some ghoul that you need to be rough with."

"Well she's a gaijin ***** , that's kinda like a ghoul, right?"

"No."

She was pushed forward, the hands letting her go. She stumbled forward and barely managed to catch her self. In front of her was none of than Red Eyes, they were giggling with that same creepy smile on their face. Next to Red Eyes was the owner of the rough voice. He was a tall bulky man that had a tired look etched into his face, as if the entire day had been nothing but hell. In one hand was a large silver brief case, the other was rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry about Juuzou, he can be a little extreme. He didn't hurt you?"

Lily straightened up, her mask slowly coming back into place as she stared at the two. So that meant Red Eyes-Juuzou was a guy, but that also meant that this other person had told him to grab her. "You with the CCG?"

The bulky man blinked twice before nodding. "Yes. I'm Special Class Ghoul Investigator Shinohara Yukinori and the guy that got you was Suzuya Juuzou. Do you know why we've come to speak to you, today?"

"..."

He gave her a reassuring smile. "Look, I'm not here to arrest you or anything, I just wanna talk. So why don't we go get something to eat, looks like you were trying to do that in the store."

She stared the man down for several seconds, eyes narrowed slightly. "I'll go with you if you answer one question."

"Yes?"

"Do I have to pay?"

* * *

The sizzling pop of grease cooking made Lily's mouth water. She was ashamed to say it, but she was easy to bribe. If you offered her free food, or free anything really, then she was more than willing to cooperate with you. Lord forbid someone gave her the codes to a nuclear missile, she'd sell them for a Calculus manual. A tiny looking waitress set down a platter in front of her with a low plop. "Please enjoy your meal."

Lily hummed and slapped her hands together. "Thanks for the food."

And she actually meant it. Shinohara had allowed her to get anything on the menu, and since she wasn't paying she got all her favorites. Eggs, toast, bacon, coffee, and of course hash-browns. The only thing Lily liked to eat was breakfast food and that was expensive to buy out in Japan, so she was going to make the most of it. She picked up her fork and began mixing her eggs and bacon together. "So, what did you need to know, Shinohara-san?"

Shinohara blew on his coffee. He was the only one at the table who didn't have any food, between Lily and his partner she figured he didn't have any budget room to get himself something. "I wanted to know more about your parents and their church."

"It's a Christian Protestant church."

"And what do they teach?"

She popped some of her eggs into her mouth and savored the taste of grease and cheese for a moment before swallowing. "I'm guessing you were there tonight? Then you already know what they teach. Do you need a conformation or something before you start a raid?"

He shook his head. "We don't want to start a raid, nor do we want to get you in trouble, Mc'Knight-san. Your parents are spreading very dangerous beliefs and harboring ghouls, people could get hurt."

Lily always knew something like this would happen. Who in their right mind would talk about ghouls the way they did? She just hoped that she would've been in an elite college by then, getting a Doctorate in psychology and far away enough from this mess so that it didn't stain her reputation. "So what do you need me for?"

"I want you to be a spy," He said. "or an inside source. You don't have to harm them or anything like that, but if you could help us get to the ghouls your parents are hiding charges won't be brought against you."

Lily picked up a piece of her toast and began to nibble on it. This special investigator looked sturdy, like he could actually take on a few ghouls, but his partner. Her gaze shifted over to the boy, which she still couldn't believe, who was eating a slice of chocolate cake. Crumbs were getting all over his clothes, and milk had formed a mustache over his thin lips. If a ghoul went up against him he'd be dead in less than a minute. She couldn't rely on him to keep her safe, but as long as Shinohara didn't bail on her..."Fine, but I need you to do something for me."

"What?"

"I want you to sign a recommendation form for me." She said.

Shinohara's eyebrow's furrowed. "What is it for?"

"College. I know I'm a long way off, but it'll make me look good if I have a recommendation from a Ghoul Investigator." She pushed her now empty plate away from her. "As long as you can do that, I'll betray my parents and all their beliefs."

"Deal."

The two shook hands. And with that Lily signed off her complacent and stagnant life, all for a college recommendation.

* * *

 **Translations:**

 **Katakana: A Japanese writing system. It's used for foreign words, like hamburger. Lily's name is written in Katakana since she's a foreigner in Japan, as such her name technically doesn't have a character(s) to represent it.**

 **Gaijin: A rude way to say foreigner in Japanese. I'm using the Japanese term because I can't exactly think of a term like this in English. I mean there's Illegal Alien, but that doesn't work in this context.**


	3. File 2

**A/N: Hello! I'm so glad so many people are enjoying this so far! We even have two follows and a favorite! I never thought that the first chapter would do so well, thanks!**

 **Title:** _ **The Bloody Files: A Ghoul's God**_

 **Summary: Shinohara and Juuzou are assigned to a case involving a cult full of humans that worship ghouls as 'angels'. Within the cult is the disillusioned daughter that's more than happy to sell them out for a price. Matters become worse when a binge eating ghouls breaks loose, and human cannibalism becomes common place. Tokyo is beginning to burst at the seams, and time is running out.**

 **Characters: Shinohara Yukinori, Suzuya Juuzou, Oc**

 **Pairings: Eventual Suzuya Juuzou x Oc**

* * *

Lily stared at the teacher's mouth as she spoke, trying to catch anything that might help her in the upcoming Biology test, while at the same time jotting down notes in her notebook. Biology had always been a hard concept for her to grasp, so it was constanly bringing down her overall grade. She wasn't even sure why this subject was so hard for her to understand, she worked just as hard in it as anything else that she studied. She paused in her writing as the teacher stopped talking, the woman pushing up her thick rimmed glasses and actually looking at the class. "I'll stop here since we have a few minutes until lunch. So what would you all like to talk about?"

A student in the front row raised his hand. "Oshiro-sensei, do you know anything about ghouls?"

"And why do you want to know about them?"

The boy shrugged. "We always talk about humans but never ghouls. Wouldn't it be important to know how ghouls work?"

The teacher sighed and leaned against her old wooden desk, crossing her arms over her buxom chest. "Everything you need to know about ghouls is covered in the ghoul safety classes." She leaned forward slightly. "However, if you wanna know more about ghouls I'll ask my husband, is that fair?"

A few of the kids cheered while others whispered to each other, already trying to figure out what her husband would know. Oshiro-sensei's husband was a ghoul investigator for the CCG, and whenever there was an attack close to the school she was always the first to know. On top of that she was one of the more lenient teachers, as long as they completed what the book covered and did their homework, she was more than willing to discuss different topics with them. That almost always had something to do with ghouls and her husband's work, the bits he could tell her, anyway. Why everyone wanted to know more about human eating creatures that they could meet on the way home, Lily didn't know. It probably had something to do with human curiosity or something within the brain, her lips pursed at the thought, her attention going back to her biology book.

Her grey eyes scanned the diagram, while her hand worked on scratching eligible notes into her notebook. This continued on for ten minuets until a low chime rang from the intercoms. High pitched screeches echoed off the walls as the students carelessly pushed back their chairs, stuffing their papers and books in their school bags, all of their attention leaving Oshiro-sensei to their friends. Lily moaned and dropped her pencil on her desk, slowly opening and closing her hand. "You shouldn't grip the pencils so tightly, Lily-chan."

Lily glanced behind her, a sigh escaping her lips when she saw her best friend. "It's called concentrating, Sana. If you did that then maybe you wouldn't always be in danger of failing."

Sana's pale face bloomed into a bright red. "It's really not my fault! They stopped showing my anime at the right time since the soccer season started, so now I have to stay up late so I can catch it."

"Why don't you record it?"

"I'm too dedicated."

Lily shook her head and began putting her books and papers into her book bag. Sana had always had this problem for as long as they had known each other. She'd put off her studies so that she could pursue her hobbies, mostly dealing anime and manga, and then beg her to help her study. She put her bag on her shoulder and stood up. "Are you going to lunch?"

Sana nodded excitedly, a hop in her step as she guided Lily out of the classroom and into the crowded hallway. "Yup! I made some riceballs by myself since my Dad is tired of making my lunch." She paused in the middle of the hall and rummaged around in her bag for a moment. A few of the students stared while others rolled their eyes at the eccentric behavior. "Lunch."

Inches from Lily's face was a purple bento box with red hearts printed on it. Even locked away in the plastic she could smell the bacon and soy sauce from the bento box. Lily took it and held it secruley to her chest. "Thanks, I forgot mine."

"You always do. You're lucky you're tutoring me or my Dad wouldn't make your lunch." Sana said. "I'm always looking out for you. What do you eat when I'm sick?"

"Water."

Sana rolled her eyes at that but didn't comment. As they made their way up to the roof, they passed by a large group of kids crowding around a blonde haired boy. "I heard it myself, the CCG found a human eating another human!"

"Yeah right, Senji. You're always making up those type of stories."

"But it's true!"

Sana tilted her head at the news, her blue eyes lighting up in excitement. As soon as they climbed the stairs and made it to the roof, she spun around and grabbed Lily by her shoulders. "Doesn't that sound exciting! If they found zombies in Tokyo we could form a survival team and everything!"

"Why don't you just join the CCG academy?"

Sana's face flushed again and she looked away. "That's too much studying."

Lily shook her head and leaned against a small wall, sliding down it until she was sitting comfortably. She popped open her bento and almost slobbered when she got a look at her lunch. Sana's father had scrambled some eggs, cooked some broccoli, and fried a piece of bacon for her. She set the bento on her lap and slapped her hands together. "Thank you for the food."

She dug the chopsticks into the broccoli and picked up a piece and popped it into her mouth. It was actually a bit strange to hear about a cannibalism case, human or ghoul. In fact, she hadn't heard of a human cannibalism case in Tokyo before today. Then again this was coming from Senji, he was a gossip and spread all types of rumors. She popped some bacon into her mouth, the grease and smoked meat wiping away any worries she may have had only moments ago. If it was something important then it was something for the authorities to handle, not a sixteen year old high school student.

* * *

That evening Lily baked some cookies. They weren't overly complex, just some standard chocolate cookies that her mother had asked for. Seeing as her father was at the church doing some marriage counseling, she was the only person to do it. She poured some more chocolate chips into the thick batter, her brain barely even registering the act as she bobbed her head along to the loud rap music coming from her headphones. When there was nothing in the bag she dumped it into the trash can and then began spooning the batter into a pan. As far as she was was concerned her mom could treat it like cookie cake, the woman probably wouldn't even bother to share anyway. She smoothed the sticky substance with her spatula before chucking it towards the sink, just when it was about to land a pale stitched hand grabbed it. Lily stared at it for several seconds before her eyes widened and she looked the owner in the face, sliding off her bright pink headphones. "What are you doing here?!"

Juuzou stuck the spatula in his mouth and tried to talk around it. "Well you see, Shinohara-san wanted to come up here himself but he didn't have a reason to. So he sent me up here since we're close to the same age or something. I wanted to sneak in, but he said that'll look suspicious or something. That almost made me sad since I haven't gotten to do anything fun all day and climbing up the side of your apartment building looks like fun-"

"You climbed up the side of the building?"

He shook his head. "Nah, Shinohara-san dragged me down. I hit my head too, that's kinda why there's blood on your floor."

Lily just stared at the boy, her blank expression seamlessly coming back into position. Wasn't this guy supposed to be an investigator, why was he using such...uncouth methods just to come see her? Lily leaned forward and snatched the now spotless spatula and chucked it into the sink, noting the blood that was running down the side of the investigator's face. It made his already pale face stand out even more, looking more like a skull than skin, the large red eyes were doing nothing to soften that impression. "Does my mom know you're here?"

"Yup!"

Knowing her mom, the woman probably though that Juuzou was just a friend. No doubt busy wondering if he was a boy or girl, and when her cookies would ever be finished. She grabbed the metal pan and went over to their small oven and opened it up, tossing the pan in without too much thought before addressing her unwanted guest. "Juuzou, why are you here?"

"Uh," He paused in his fidgeting, tilting his head to the side. "I think Shinohara-san wanted me to get you so we could go to the church."

"Why?"

He shrugged, his arms slapping against his sides dramatically. Lily groaned and almost curled up in herself right then and there. Seeing as how it was Wednesday, she really thought she could get out of leaving her house again. She wearily watched Juuzou press his face against the oven door, obviously trying to watch the cookies cook. What Shinohara wanted wasn't all that hard to do, her father was in a small study with the couple, everywhere else was completely abandoned until Sunday morning. "Are you sure we can't let this wait until Sunday?"

He didn't even bother to look at her. "Nope! Too many people on Sunday, and since we're outsiders it'd look kinda weird for us to hang around, right?"

Lily really didn't like hearing the logic coming out of his mouth. Crossing her arms she snuggled a bit deeper into her plush robe, already dreading having to go out into the early spring weather. "Let me just tell my mom we're leaving, okay?"

* * *

Lily made a choking sound the minute the two of them made it outside, her entire body shuddering. "Oh, god."

Shinohara stood outside a black car, his features relaxing when he saw them. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, Mc'Knight-san. I thought it would be best to look around the church with as few people inside as possible."

"Yeah. Sure." She huddled deeper into her windbreaker, her eyes narrowed. "Can we go so we can come back? I'm gonna fall asleep at this rate."

"Of course, Mc'Knight-san."

"Lily." She opened up the door and slipped inside the front, not even bothering to give Juuzou the option. Shinohara slipped in as well, buckling himself in with a light chuckle. "I'm serious, I hate my last name. Sounds like some kind of old fashioned pub name in the wilds of Scotland or something."

Juuzou grabbed the back of her head rest and leaned forward. "Is that where you're from, Ri-chan *****?"

"No, I'm American."

He oh'd before engaging in a mostly one-sided conversation with Shinohara. Watching the two she quickly deduced that even though they were partners, the two also had a deeper dynamic. Whenever Juuzou said something a bit inappropriate, Shinohara would swoop in and instruct him on how to say whatever it was properly, or to just shut up about it. By the time they got to the church Lily had learned all about icing, the difference between it and blood when it comes to texture, and apprently her skin would be perfect to scar since the pink would stand out from the coffee brown. When the car pulled into the parking lot Lily practically lept out and went up to the door, sticking her key into the lock and jiggling it. She hopped from one foot to the other, her body already shuddering thanks to the cold. "What're you guys looking for?"

"Stuff." Juuzou said excitedly. "Hey, when do you guys sacrifice virgins?"

Lily pressed harder against the door. "Are you volunteering?"

Juuzou opened his mouth to say something, but the door opened with a loud groan. Inside the light were all out and the plastic chair were put away, all of them stacked in the corner in neat pyramids. Shinohara dragged out his cellphone and pressed a few buttons on the touch screen. "Let's work Juuzou. We're looking for anything hidden, you know what I'm talking about."Juuzou gave a salute with the wrong hand before skipping over to the podium. Shinohara directed his attention back to Lily who was standing to the side awkwardly. "Go talk to your Dad."

"...Right."

She watched them for a few more moments before going down the narrow hall. The sharp smell of green tea spiked with lemon wafted from the the open doorway, along with the gentle smell of something sweet. She peeked into the room and saw her father drinking tea with a young couple who were sitting across from him, their bodies stiff and as far away from each other as possible.

"Um, Dad?" The man looked up from his tea and nodded, a smile easing on his face, and gestured for her to come in with his pen. "Momma wanted me to see if you were okay since you're taking longer than normal."

He hummed and set his mug down on his metal desk. "We're just wrapping up here, why don't you go to the chapel, we'll be out in a minute."

"Right..."

She made her way back into the chapel, hands shoved into her windbreaker. Her father had always been this way, busy at all times and constantly pushing her to the side. She knew he wasn't being mean by it, he was paying for her schooling after all, but she did wonder if she got some of her personality from him. The ability to separate 'family' and 'love' to get things done regardless of sentimental limitations. She let out a low sigh and shook her head, that line of thought was far more depressing than she initially thought. Entering back into the chapel she saw Shinohara and Juuzou by the podium, phones away and quietly talking. Juuzou noticed her and broke out into a smile that stretched too far across his face. Shinohara turned around and looked at her and nodded. "We found what we were looking for."

"That's great." She shuffled over to a wall and slid down to the floor. "I'm gonna go home with my Dad, I'm sure you don't want me hearing in on your secret ghoul stuff."

"Are you sure?"

She shrugged and leaned her head on the wooden walls. "Yeah, I'll live."

Juuzou skipped over to the door, not even sparing her a second glance, already chatting about anything and everything that came to his head. Shinohara followed behind him, the man frowning for a moment before answering Juuzou's question. They opened the door, the cold rushing in and swirling around, before the door shut behind them. Lily burrowed deep into her windbreaker, bringing her knees to her chin and narrowing her eyes, trying to find something in the never ending darkness.

* * *

 **Translations:**

 **Ri-chan: To say Lily in Japanese you'd say Riri. Juuzou is being very literal with how he's saying her name, identifying the 'ri' sound and using that in place of her full name.**

* * *

 **Review Responses:**

 _ **Pancakes21:**_ **Thanks! That air of danger is super important, and I'm glad it translated onto the page. ^_^ And the idea about the worshiping cult came from the opening. I thought Tsukiyama was a preacher. XD**


	4. File 3

**A/N: Hey everyone! I deeply apologize for not updating on time, but I was enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday with my family. However I will be updating again tomorrow, so be on the look out for it. Once again thanks for the follows and favorites, I love seeing them in my email!**

 **Title:** _ **The Bloody Files: A Ghoul's God**_

 **Summary: Shinohara and Juuzou are assigned to a case involving a cult full of humans that worship ghouls as 'angels'. Within the cult is the disillusioned daughter that's more than happy to sell them out for a price. Matters become worse when a binge eating ghouls breaks loose, and human cannibalism becomes common place. Tokyo is beginning to burst at the seams, and time is running out.**

 **Characters: Shinohara Yukinori, Suzuya Juuzou, Oc**

 **Pairings: Eventual Suzuya Juuzou x Oc**

* * *

Lily and her family were at the church by dawn that Sunday. The putrid smell of exhaust and the cold were the only things that Lily could concentrate on as she slowly helped her parents set up the chairs, pin announcements to the bulletin board, and put the sheet music on the piano. She understood everything had to be set up perfectly so the church looked presentable, but she didn't know why they got up so early. It was only eight in the morning, the service didn't start until ten. A yawn escaped her lips, echoing off the old walls of the church and making her mother cluck her tongue. "I thought I told you to go to bed on time last night."

"I did." She rubbed her eyes, enjoying the slight stinting sensation. "I just kept having nightmares."

Her father looked up from his bible, a yellow highlighter poised above the book. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"It was just a nightmare."

She didn't like telling her parents about her dreams or nightmares. A lot of the time they tried to tell her that they meant something deep and wonderful, and Lily wasn't in the best of moods to entertain them that early in the morning. She grabbed a stack of bibles and began putting them on the neatly arranged chairs. As she did the door opened with the obnoxious squeaking, and an elderly lady came in. In her arms was a wrapped up package that she held so close to her chest, Lily thought it would merge with her. "Pastor Mc'Knight, may I speak to you for a moment?"

Her father nodded and led the old woman to his office. " Of course, anything for an Angel."

The lady gave a gravely laugh as she followed him, even giving her mother a polite nod as she passed by, she then dained to do so to Lily as well. Lily averted her eyes, the hairs on the back on end as she caught the metallic scent of blood. She wondered if the 'angel' had just eaten a person, or did she bathe in blood to stay youngish looking? She snorted at the last thought, that sounded like something Juuzou would say. Speaking of which, she looked up from the bibles and towards the door, she wondered if the CCG were coming today. Shinohara had said they found what they were looking for, did that mean they'd stop coming by the church? She didn't feel particularly sad about it, as long as Shinohara signed her recommendation form they didn't have to ever come back.

* * *

Before she even knew it, church finally got started. Her mother played the piano while everyone sang an upbeat hymn under the gaze of the three 'angels'. It almost felt like she was taking some kind of test, and the ghouls were the ones who decided if she would fail it or not. The notes began to pile together to a crescendo, the voices of the church becoming louder, you could practically feel the excited energy leaking from everyone there. As the song ended there was a loud screech from the door and almost everyone craned their necks to see who came in, Lily included. Down the aisle came Shinohara and Juuzou, both their faces flushed and their breathing labored. Shinohara claimed a free chair next to her, and consequently Juuzou took the one next to him. Lily's mother instructed everyone to turn to a page in the hymn book, before she began to play another song, this one a bit more rambunctious than the last.

"Have you noticed anything off with your father since the last time we spoke?" Shinohara asked in a hushed whisper.

Lily didn't take her eyes off her hymnal. "Why are we discussing this now?"

"You'd be surprised how safe people feel in their own territory."

Maybe that was true. She highly doubted her father expected two CCG investigators to attend his church. Even further down that line of thought, she doubted that he would even imagine that they would be investigating him. So they were probably safe discussing this type of thing in the middle of praise and worship. Sighing, she went over her father's behavior in her head, trying to think of anything odd. "Well...He's been working at the church a lot more."

"..."

She spared him a glance. "That's not something incriminating, is it?"

"It depends. When we came down here a few night ago, we were looking for anything that would tip him off to our investigation. The only thing we managed to find were some video cameras."

Her gaze shifted top the old surveillance camera in the left corner of the room. It was connected to a computer in her father's office and the feed was grainy. No one took that piece of junk seriously and was the subject of jokes around the dinner table. The only thing it was mean to do was scare off anyone who wanted to steal from the offering plate. "That camera's the least of your problems."

"I wasn't talking about that one." He said. "There's over twenty in this room alone. All of them as small as your pinky finger."

She was almost impressed with the new information. "Do you know where the feed is being sent to?"

"Not yet, but we're working on it."

The piano music stopped, and Lily turned the majority of her attention to the sermon. Considering what usually went on in the church, she didn't think her father would be stupid enough to have such incriminating evidence against himself set up. However all videos needed to be streamed somewhere, they had to be too small to keep all the information on themselves and still run. And how long had these cameras spied on everyone in the church? If the CCG took the information, what exactly would be found that would be considered illegal? She hugged herself, eyes narrowing as she scanned her thoughts for anything that could break the deal she had with Shinohara. The worst that she'd done was fall asleep on her father's New Year's sermon, and if that was a deal breaker then recommendation be damned. She had a good excuse to fall asleep anyway, her boyfriend had kept her up the night before and...-Her eyes widened as she remembered something, her fingers balling up into fists, and her heartbeat accelerating.

It was clear that the CCG needed the information, but what parties were they looking for? And just laws were they expecting to be broken? If she had done something that was considered 'illegal' would she be dragged into the same trial that her parents would be apart of? One thing was certain: she couldn't let Shinohara get his hands on the footage, not before she got a peek at them first.

* * *

Lily ended up leaving the church before her parents. Normally all three of them would stay and clean up the church after everyone left, but Lily claimed that she didn't feel well and wanted to go home. Her mother had checked her temperature with her hand, and determined that she was far too warm and should 'go straight to bed and stop studying'. And for the first time in a long while, she actually followed some of her mother's advice. She was spread out on her bed, day clothes all over the floor, and her night clothes on. Her blanket was tucked firmly around her as she lightly breathed, her curly hair tickling her nose as it moved. It had been a long time since she had voluntarily stopped studying, not since she had hurt herself with her boyfriend.

She flipped onto her back, a small smile curling onto her lips. She had hurt her leg and had been in so much pain that all she did was sleep. It was the only thing that blocked out the pain, not even medicines were all that helpful since they hurt her head. She could remember her boyfriend gently stroking her head as he held her, telling her that she would be okay, that it would heal. She opened her eyes and stared at a small picture in a metal picture frame on her bedside. In it was a picture of Sana holding up a v with her fingers, next to her was Lily who was squinting thanks to the flash, and towering over the both of them was a boy. His violet hair was cut short and a smile was pasted on his lips that managed to go all the way to his blue eyes. One of his arms was wrapped firmly around her waist, as if he was attempting to bring her closer to him, even though she was already leaning against him. In this particular photo, the three of them were taking on last picture before summer vacation started. It was exactly three weeks before her leg injury, and everything seemed a bit easier back then as an idiot freshmen in high school.

"Yukimura...Your ass is still haunting me."

She flipped around and stared at the ceiling again. If her father put in the cameras then the feed had to go back to a place that he would check. There was a computer at the church, but that one was terribly old fashioned, it could barely process a game of solitaire. The one in his home office, however, had the RAM and processing power to keep up a twenty-four hour feed of the church. She sat up and kicked her legs over the side of the bed, her blanket falling to a pile on the floor. usually her parents went out to lunch after cleaning, so she could expect them back in at least an hour, two if they decided to make the most of it with her gone. She padded her way out of her room and down the hall where her father's home office was. She opened the door and the fragrant smell of lemon flooded her nose, coupled with a cool breeze from the open window. The room was as tidy as it usually was, with no papers on the desk, all the books stacked neatly on the shelf, and a cup of half gone tea sitting beside his black laptop. She pulled out the chair and sat down, her fingers already pressing on the keyboard to type in her father's password. The screen lit to life, a picture of her family on vacation as the background, and a few program shortcuts lined the bottom of the screen. Most of them were just note keepers, the internet, and a free bible program. She logged into the internet and checked his history, just to find some Youtube videos, a few weather sources, and his e-mail which he had yet to log out of. She clicked into that and went through the mail, most of it whining from the church members, a few coupons to some stores, her mother, and some named Dr. Kasegawa.

She clicked into it and a short email popped up. "Dear Mc'Knight-san, I have determined that your request to increase your wife's medication must be denied. She is slowly making progress in her sessions, and could in fact decrease her medication again by the end of summer."

She clicked out of the email and went through, deleting the day's history and logging out of the email. She knew that her mother went to a therapist, that's why she was gone every Thursday, but she never knew that she was also on medication. She'd have to ask about that later, for now she needed to find the streaming program. She logged into the computers search, and typed of 'video' hoping to find anything that would look suspicious. Almost immediately videos popped up, all of them at least ten minutes long and with a time stamp from last month to yesterday. All of the thumbnails depicted the church's chapel, but her father seemed to be standing over someone who was kneeling before him. She clicked into one that was labeled for yesterday and brought up the volume loud so that she could hear what was happening. The video buffered for a moment before it began, showing her father reciting a quote from the bible and a young woman kneeling before him with her hands pressed to her chest. "Do you want forgiveness for your sins?"

"Yes!" The woman choked out. "Please, I've done so much..."

Her father slammed his bible shut and knelt down. "Then you realize what you must do? Cast off the sins of humanity and take up your true calling. You are not like us of the pasture, instead you are a higher being, a heavenly being, one that will purge humanity of their evil and protect the righteous!"

The doors of the church opened and two men brought in a young man, he was weakly struggling against them but laughing at the same time. When they reached the woman he was pushed forward, nearly hitting his head against the floor. The woman ducked her head, a low wail escaping her lips. "But Mc'Knight-san-!"

"He stole money from school girls, and raped two of them in secret." Her father said. "You will be cleaning this world of his filth."

Lily's eyes widened when she saw a flare of red in the darkness before the man screamed. Only seconds later the man let out a high pitched scream and blood splattered everywhere, some droplet even managing to hit the dominant camera that was capturing the footage. It continued on like that for ten minutes, high pitched screaming that quickly became hoarse, wet crunching followed by a loud snap, slurping that descended into bloody gurgles, and the occasional tearing sound that made her stomach churn as she imagined the man getting eaten. When it was finally quiet she could hear her father sigh. "See, now you have embraced your true calling and have provided justice for those poor girls. Now go forth and continue to purge this world of its sins."

The footage stopped there, showing the thumbnail once again. She quickly exited out of the entire program and brought the computer back to the start page before getting up and slowly walking back to her room. She shut the door behind her and slid down it, her hands lacing themselves into her long curly hair as if she was trying to hold back a headache. She had never seen a ghoul eat a human before, the worse she had seen was the barely recognizable corpses from the news, and even those were censored a good chunk of the time. The way the man had begged to be let go was pathetic, screamed in between wet coughs and a sniffling nose; however her father had said that the man had raped two girls. With that said didn't that mean he deserved what he got, that the ghoul was just giving those girls justice? She wanted to laugh at herself, why was she getting so worked up over this? Wasn't her policy to stay neutral until she got something out of it? The CCG was keeping her out of prison, plus she would get a recommendation once everything was said and done, that outweighed any false sense of 'justice' that the video tried to preach.

She stood back up, her shaking now stopped and her confidence back in place. She went over to her low table and grabbed her phone, looking through the contacts for a moment, before clicking a certain number that had been added earlier that morning. "Hello, Shinohara-san, I've got something interesting to show you."


	5. File 4

**A/N: And we have two more follows in the same day, thank you so much! This story is beginning to pick up momentum plot wise, so buckle up those seat belts!**

 **Title:** _ **The Bloody Files: A Ghoul's God**_

 **Summary: Shinohara and Juuzou are assigned to a case involving a cult full of humans that worship ghouls as 'angels'. Within the cult is the disillusioned daughter that's more than happy to sell them out for a price. Matters become worse when a binge eating ghouls breaks loose, and human cannibalism becomes common place. Tokyo is beginning to burst at the seams, and time is running out.**

 **Characters: Shinohara Yukinori, Suzuya Juuzou, Oc**

 **Pairings: Eventual Suzuya Juuzou x Oc**

* * *

It didn't take long for Shinohara and his partner to make it to her apartment. She opened the door for them, and gestured to the hallway behind her. "They're on my Dad's computer."

She shut the door behind them, and waited for them to take their shoes off as she leaned against the hall corner. When they were done they followed her into the small office, Shinohara immediately sliding into the chair. Instead of bringing the computer to life, he seemed to scan around it, almost like he was looking for a snake to come out and bite him. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Juuzou doing the same thing, but far less subtle compared to his older counterpart. He was standing in front of the bookcase and humming to himself as he tapped the spines of the books.

"So how did you find them?"

Lily turned back to Shinohara. "Huh?"

"The videos," He said. "how did you find them?"

"Well..."Lily's brain slowed down as the question sank in. The truth sounded rather incriminating at the moment, no doubt Shinohara would put her under surveillance if he hadn't already, so telling the truth wasn't an option. On the same note Lily was a terrible liar, there just wasn't any real reason for her to do so. She didn't go out partying, sneaking out of the house, stealing, or anything else that really required her to lie. She buried herself deep into her fluffy sweater, burying her mouth into it. Stalling for this long was making her look suspicious, she didn't even have to look at the older man to know that he was expecting an answer. She couldn't claim she was browsing the internet, you had to go through the computer's search to find those videos. The only way she could get away with any excuse was by saying she was trying to find a particular video, and happened to stumble on those by accident...

"Well?"

"I was watching porn!" Her gaze snapped to Shinohara, her face heating up in a faint blush. "I accidentally downloaded a video and searched the computer to get rid of it. I ended up finding it, the killing video I mean, not the porn."

He stared at her for several seconds before looking back at the computer, his hands gliding across the computer as he began his search. "Alright, can you tell me a specific name then?"

Lily's blank expression began shifting back into place as she racked her brain for the answer. "I think it was called 'Number Twelve'."

For a moment there was just the steady clacking of keys, before the investigator stopped and a low whine came from the laptop's speakers. Juuzou skipped over to his superior, watching the video over his shoulder. Lily didn't join them, instead she stayed frozen in place, rubbing her arms as she listened to the audio. For the first time she was actually convinced that these guys may actually do something for the CCG. Their faces didn't looked shocked or disgusted, instead they were watching intently, Juuzou's face even broke out into a smile as the screaming started. Just as she expected out of investigators, cool, calm, and collected when faced with such a horrifying image.

When the video ended Shinohara drew out a jump drive and pressed it into the computer, a cheerful bell ringing to let him know that it was connected. "That was definitely a ghoul, but I don't think I've seen one so against eating like that. It's rather bizarre."

"Are we gonna look for the ghoul? We're gonna, right?" Juuzou said, his voice taking on an excited tone.

Shinohara nodded. "Yeah, but it's going to be hard since we didn't see her face. We'll have to take it back to headquarters and get them to lighten and enhance the image."A loud ding sounded from the computer. Shinohara clicked around for a moment before sighing and leaning back in his chair. "It's going to take three hours to download it all from the computer."

"My parents are gonna be here before then, Shinohara-san."

"I know..." He stared at the screen for a few more moments before he stood up and began making his way out of the office, Juuzou hot on his heels. "You can just bring it back to me when it's done."

"Huh?"

"It shouldn't be hard," He said, glancing back behind him. "just come by the CCG branch office here in the Eleventh Ward. If you tell them I sent you, it shouldn't be a problem."

"Yay, Ri-chan is gonna visit!" Juuzou said, throwing his hands in the air. "Maybe you'll get to see us kill ghouls! I don't have quinque though, but I've still got my knives, and they make the job just as fun!"

"Joy..."She followed behind them, dread already making her belly slosh around. She was ready for them to leave so she could go back to bed and wallow in self pity. Maybe taking on this entire thing wasn't worth it, she was becoming way too involved.

A strip of paper waved around in front of her face for a moment. "This is the address for the building, it's the flashiest one, you can't miss it."

"Right..." She watched them leave, almost cheering when the apartment became her's again.

* * *

Lily wanted to curse her parents. They ended up coming home later that evening, long after the hard drive had downloaded the videos. If she had known they would be that long, she would have insisted that Shinohara came back to get his crap, but no. Of course they didn't have the decency to call or leave a text, what were phones even made for? To tell people what was going on right? Or was that left to social media or whatever else people were using now a days? Because of their negligence she had to go to the CCG building after she was done with school, and also had to take a different train route, which also meant she was going to be out in the cold longer than she ever wanted to, and on top of that she'd miss the first few minutes of dinner since it'd be late before she got home. Who knows, maybe she'd even be eaten by a ghoul, her luck was just going to hell so why not descend to the seventh level of it. She glared at her math book, scribbling her notes as fast as she humanely could, the pencil flying across the page with loud scratching sounds and the occasional squeak when too much pressure was applied. When she neared the bottom there was a snap and the lead broke, the broken piece flying to the floor to be abandoned until it was time for the last class to clean the classroom.

"Hey, Lily-chan." There was a gentle tap on her back. "You okay?"

She glanced behind her just to see Sana staring at her with a raised eyebrow. If an airhead like Sana noticed something was wrong, then she needed to tone down her aggression. She inhaled a couple of breaths, relishing the smell of over priced cologne and pencil lead, before exhaling. She turned back to her friend with her balnk expression firmly in place, if not softened. "I am now."

"Good, for a moment there I thought-"

"Nakamura-san," Both girls turned their attention to their fuming Geometry teacher. "If there's something you'd like to say, then by all means tell the entire class."

Sana's face turned a dark red and she lowered her head to stare at her closed teacher nodded before turning back to the board, writing more variables down for the equation he was discussing. Class continued on like that for the next half hour. A slow pace that almost calmed Lily's nerves and lulled her back into her stagnant and comfortable studying. However the bell soon rang and a flurry of papers and chatter disrupted it all, bringing her back into that state of near depression. Lily quickly packed her things away, dread filling her belly as she counted out how many more classes she had left before she had to see Shinohara. The gap was tiny now, just art and her Japanese literature were the only barriers.

Sana slung an arm over Lily's shoulder. "So why're you so down? I know we had to switch to the spring uniform, but that won't last too long. You'll be able to wear the long sleeve shirt before you know it!"

"I have to go out." She said. "I have to drop something off after school."

Sana stared at her for several seconds before smacking her back. "My prayers at the shrine were answered! We should totally celebrate, maybe even go to Mc'Donalds, your treat of course."

Lily just grunted, not the least bit amused by her friend's excitement. The reaction was similar to her mother's from earlier that morning. The woman had been positively glowing, she had then gone on a tangent about keeping friends, inviting boys over, what type of food to eat, and a warning against drinking coffee since it stained your teeth. It almost felt like she was sending her off to college or something. She knew she didn't go out that often, but it almost concerned her when her best friend and mother were getting excited over an errand. God forbid she actually brought some guy home, they'd probably need a trip to the emergency room for instant cancer or something.

"You're making a big deal out of this."

"Because you never leave your house!" She said. "I mean I even offer to buy you food and you don't budge, this errand must be something special." She leaned in closer, her lips inches from Lily's ear. "You're not seeing a boy are you?"

"No."

"Eh, you said that so quickly!"

"Just shut up."

Sana backed off with a pout on her face. "Fine, but if it's a guy just make sure he wears a condom, I don't wanna be an auntie yet."

"Shut up, Sana!"

* * *

Lily walked almost everywhere she went. She didn't know how to ride a bike, her parents didn't own a car, she didn't have extra money for a taxi or bus, and she despised trains. They were just so cramped and small, plus there was always the possibility of getting molested while on one, so she avoided them as much as she could. The only time she rode them was to school and back, and the only reason she bothered to do that was because she'd never make it to school on time if she had to walk. However she'd have to ride an extra twenty minutes today thanks to having to go a station down since the CCG office was no where near her normal station. In fact she began to panic when she did pass her station, briefly forgetting that she had to go down one more time before she got off for the evening. When the train finally dinged, she hurried off, clutching her bag close to her chest. The place looked like any other station in Tokyo, plenty of stores and people milling about, but she had no idea where to go. She took her phone out of her bag and stared at the address she typed in that morning, if she had any WI-Fii she could probably bring up a map. She clicked around on her phone for a minute, but soon realized that you had to have a code to get into the WI-FI, that meant she had to spend money, money she didn't have at the moment.

Taking in a deep breath she looked around for a moment before noticing a shock of gray hair and a stooped body. She walked over to the person and gently tapped their shoulder. "Excuse me, do you know how to get to the CCG branch building."

The woman turned around and Lily felt her heart drop into her stomach. Her grey eyes stared into the woman's brown ones, almost drowning in them as she recognized the person she was speaking to. "Ah, Lily-chan. I don't think I've ever seen you outside of church, what has brought you all the way out here?"

She fumbled with her words, sweat beginning to collect on her forehead as she just stared at the woman. Everything in her head told her to run, to keep away from the ghoul and just run, but she couldn't. It was already suspicious that she was asking about the CCG, but running would probably lead to the woman eating her face as soon as she turned her back. "Hello, Fujimoto-san. I-I was just going to the CCG office for...Um, for school."

The woman gave her signature dry laugh, making Lily's skin crawl. "Are they that obsessed with ghouls that they make children do work on them? Back in my day we used to have to learn about math, science, and how the world worked. Not wrongly put fear, ridiculous human system indeed." Her mirth suddenly dropped, her eyes narrowing. "You don't believe any of that filth, do you, Lily-chan."

The chan* at the end of her name felt more like a formality, then some kind of sweet slap on like it usually did. She buried her face into her windbreaker, cursing Shinohara with all her soul. She spoke again, the words getting harder to work past her almost swollen throat. "No. Dad said that ghouls are angels."

"And you believe that?"She just nodded, she didn't trust that her words would come out without wavering. This seemed to pacify Ms. Fujimoto, however, and her fat arms wrapped around Lily's thinner ones. She shuddered under the contact and, for the first time, prayed to God that Ms. Fujimoto wouldn't notice."Good! I'll lead you to that accursed building, okay? Why don't you tell me all about your day on our way."

* * *

Ms. Fujimoto left Lily across the street of the large building, claiming that even the sight of it made her sick to her stomach. Lily hurried across the street and up to the main doors, which were guarded by two investigators who carried their iconic silver briefcases. They didn't even question her as she went in, merely giving her a once over as she pushed open one of the double doors that led into the building. As soon as she entered a chill went up her school skirt, and the smell of rubbing alcohol was heavy in the air. Despite not wanting to be there Lily was curious, but was quickly disappointed when she saw how much the place looked like a normal office building. There was even a reception desk, with a pretty red head typing away at a computer with one hand, and cradling a phone to her ear with another. The woman put the phone down, however, when she noticed Lily walking up to her.

"Good afternoon," She said. "how may I help you?"

"I need to speak with Shinohara Yukinori." Lily said, glancing behind her every so often. "It's an emergency."

"Are you family?"

"No."

The woman shook her head. "Well I can't help you then. Only his dependents are able to drag him out of a meeting."

Lily grit her teeth, grey eyes narrowing as her patience began winding down for the day. She dropped her gaze to the woman's chest, catching her name on the flimsy plastic name tag, before addressing her again. "Look, Himiko. I know he has important business to take care of, but he asked me personally to drag my ass all the way down here to speak with him. On top of that something may have happened to blow his cover, so can you please let me see him?"

"No. Rules are rules." The woman's attention went to the phone as it began to ring. "Hello, CCG Eleventh Ward branch office."

Lily just stared at the receptionist, fighting the urge to rip the phone off her ear. Couldn't she tell from her worried and even frenzied tone that she was desperate to see Shinohara? She knew she had an accent, but it wasn't so thick as to where no one could understand her. Then again she had been rude, she used the woman on a first name basis and even nixed the honorific. Maybe she'd been more receptive if she had at least used san* at the end of her first name. She slowly backed away from the desk, ready to just call Shinohara and interrupt the meeting, when the color red caught in her peripheral vision. She spun around and almost ran to Juuzou the minute she caught sight of him walking into the building. "Hey, Juuzou!"

The boy noticed her right away and walked over. "Ri-chan, I thought you came by already?"

"I had school." She shook her head, and tried to steer the conversation back on track. "Look, I need you to tell Shinohara-san that your cover may be blown. An old ghoul from the church, Fujimoto Yoko, even went all the way to escort me here. If she tells anyone we're all screwed."

The boy stared at her for a moment before a grin spread across his face. "That means we have to kill her right? That way she can't tell anyone, right?"

She nodded hesitantly. "That or take her into custody, but we need to tell Shinoha-"

"It's fine," He said, already spinning on his heel and walking towards the door. "we don't want to interrupt Shinohara-san. We can take care of that ghoul grandma by ourselves, I might even get a quinque!"

"What do you mean 'we'." Lily nearly shouted, drawing some attention from the people in the spacious lobby. "You don't even have a quinque and I'm a civilian, we're both fucked until Shinohara-san get's out of the meeting!"

The boy giggled and tilted his head back slightly, the smile spreading wider and his eyes taking on an almost crazy light. "That's what makes it fun, don't you think, Ri-chan?"

* * *

 **Translations:**

 **chan: An honorific normally used for young girls or pets. It can be used for young boys, but that's usually in a teasing manner.**

 **san: The Japanese equivalent of Mr./Ms./Mrs. It's an honorific that you always use in order to be respectful. Especially if the person is older than you, your superior, a stranger, or just someone that you want to respect even though you know them pretty well.**


	6. File 5

**A/N: So here's a question for everyone, do you guys like the new summary or prefer the old? Also, thank you all so much, we've gone up two follows since the last time I was on here.**

 **Title:** _ **The Bloody Files: A Ghoul's God**_

 **Summary: Shinohara and Juuzou are assigned to a case involving a cult full of humans that worship ghouls as 'angels'. Within the cult is the disillusioned daughter that's more than happy to sell them out for a price. Matters become worse when a binge eating ghouls breaks loose, and human cannibalism becomes common place. Tokyo is beginning to burst at the seams, and time is running out.**

 **Characters: Shinohara Yukinori, Suzuya Juuzou, Oc**

 **Pairings: Eventual Suzuya Juuzou x Oc**

* * *

Lily followed behind Juuzou as they emerged out of the CCG branch office, her body stiff and doing its best to tunnel into her windbreaker. This was a terrible idea, no matter how she tried to rationalize it. Even though Juuzou was a Third Class Investigator, she had absolutely no faith in him. He was skinny, impulsive, ditsy, and she was sure that the entire CCG was just waiting to throw him in a casket. "Can you explain why you're dragging me along, Juuzou?"

He didn't bother to look at her, still following some unknown thread. "I don't know what this ghoul lady looks like."

"Seriously? I could have given you a picture."

"What fun would that be, Ri-chan?"

She huffed but didn't respond. In all honesty she was a bit uncomfortable around the older boy, she had never had to interact with him before, almost all her attention was wrapped up with Shinohara. So as they walked down the crowded sidewalk, it was like walking with a stranger that she had to lead around school. But this one was hyperactive and insisted on walking on the rails separating the sidewalk from the road. "Fujimoto-san lives a few blocks from here, I've been to her place with my Dad. If anything she's probably trying to get to her phone, so if we hurry we might catch up to her."

Lily grabbed his arm and dragged him off the rail as she made a left. He jumped down easily, not even missing a beat as he continued to walk along. "Um, so do we need to go over a battle plan or something?"

The boy thought for a minute before nodding. "You stay away while I kill her."

"Was gonna do that anyway."

Juuzou suddenly skipped in front of Lily, his face close to her's as he walked backwards. She felt her breath hitch in her throat due to the closeness, but didn't let her discomfort show on her face. "You really are a coward, aren't you, Ri-chan."

"Yeah and proud of it." She retorted. "There's so many people who end up dying when they play hero. I've got better things to do than die an early death."

"Then why're you helping me find Fujimoto-san?"

Lily stopped walking all together, staring at Juuzou's back with narrowed eyes. That was a good question, why was she helping him? She could have warned them that their cover was going to be blown, then headed straight back home on the next train. Or even stayed over at Sana's for the evening if she thought going home was unsafe, but instead she was tripping around with Juuzou trying to find an elderly ghoul. Turning around she began to walk in the direction that she came, not even bothering to look back. What was the point in trying to help him anyway, it didn't affect her too much. In the end she could say that her teacher was talking about ghouls, and she had to do a paper on them. The best place to find information, that wasn't falsified, was the CCG. She pressed her arms closer to her sides, doing her best not to bump into people as she walked. Just a little longer in this crowd before she could go home, turn on some music, and study her biology. Maybe she'd even make a mug of coffee with extra sugar and cream, she shivered just at the thought of the warm drink sliding down her throat.

As she passed by an alley she felt sharp fingernails dig into her clothes, managing to pierce into her skin, and drag her backwards. She opened her mouth to scream, but a cold hand slapped over her mouth, silencing her. "You're a terrible liar, Lily-chan. And here I thought you were such a good girl."

Lily's heart almost stopped as she recognized the voice hissing in her ear. Her instincts told her to run, all the adrenaline in her body already working its way through her, but she couldn't move. The female ghoul's arms were still constricted around her upper body, the other pushing enough force into her face to break it. "Now listen closely, you're going to tell me everything that you told the investigator's, and I might kill you before eating you."

The old woman's hand fell off her face, and she took a few shaky breaths, doing her best to get her composure back despite the stress she was enduring. "I-I didn't say anything-"

She felt the pain before anything else registered. It was hot and pulsed, making the entire left side of her body sore. Her vision had darkened for a moment, but she quickly realized she was no longer standing. Instead she was lying on her left arm, her head half submerged in a puddle thanks to the rain last night. She slowly pushed herself up with her right arm, water getting in her eyes and a chill sweeping through her. She wasn't sure if it was thanks to the cold or the pain going through her body.

"Look at me girl!" The old woman's voice made her ears ring, but she did as instructed anyway. The woman's kakugan were activated, and a giant kagune was wrapped around her arm like a drill, pointed right at her face. "Now tell me exactly what you told the doves."

She opened her mouth, but instead of words a harsh cough escaped her lips. She tried to breathe, but found every time she did her lungs would burn. She shut her eyes and focused on that pain, each hack making her sink lower to the ground until her head pressed against it.

"Awe, did I hurt you?" The ghoul asked. "That's okay, my stomach is ready to indulge in you."

Lily shot her eyes open and jerked her head up, eyes fixed on the drill that was ready to skewer her. So this was how she was going to die, getting stabbed then eaten by a crazy ghoul. She wouldn't get the highest grades this year in school, get into a good college, or even go visit Sana's family's shrine like she had always promised. She supposed the least she could do was make a quick prayer, maybe in honor of the Shinto* gods, to make up for it.

"Hey, granny," Blood splashed on Lily's face and hair, the ghoul screaming as four sharp knives jutted out of Fujimoto's body. Juuzou yanked the ghoul backwards, another knife sliding through her body with a light gush, as more blood splattered all over Lily. "let me see your insides!"

Lily could barely keep up with what was happening, her eyes wide and mouth open as she watched the two fight. Unlike what she had expected, Juuzou could hold his own. He was fast and every time Fujimoto took a stab at him he dodged and launched a barrage of knives her way. The old ghoul was covered in them, one even sticking out of her eye. The boy moved around with a cat like grace that was extremely experienced, but what concerned Lily was the smile etched on his face the whole time. Every moment of this bloody mess he was enjoying, hell she wouldn't even be surprised if he turned around and ate the corpse when he was done. She flinched when the ghoul was thrown in her direction, the kagune barely missing her. The ghoul's body writhed around for a few moments before becoming still. Juuzou walked over, twirling an oddly shaped knife between his fingers.

"Ah, looks like she's broken." His red eyed gaze switched to Lily. "She almost broke you, too."

Lily didn't respond, her entire focus on the pain in her body as she dug her finger in between the bricks in the wall, slowly pushing herself up. A few of her bones popped, causing her to whimper and fall to her knees. She shut her eyes and breathed in and out a few times, aware of the light rattling coming from her lungs.

In and out. Rattle. In and out. Rattle.

Suddenly she felt rough hands grab her, forcing her off the ground. "Get up, Ri-chan. You still have to give Shinohara-san those videos."

She squealed when she was in a standing position and sunk back to the ground. "I can't. I really can't. I shouldn't have even come all the way out here-"

"Pathetic." She looked up, surprised by Juuzou's words. "You barely got hit and you're already lying there, ready to get eaten by a hungry ghoul. Maybe I should just leave you here and see what happens."

The words were cold, and sliced through any of the feelings Lily had left. She was not pathetic, she was just hurting! How dare he judge her, she didn't have the training he did, anything a ghoul did to her would almost always end up with her hurt and almost dead. She had heard from some people that CCG investigators were prideful, but she had never experienced it first hand. She grit her teeth and dug her fingers back into the wall and stood up on shaky feet, her pride forcing all her pain into a tiny corner of her mind. "Shut up, bastard! I'm doing my best. I can't kill ghouls or stand a beating against one, but that doesn't make me pathetic, and I sure as hell don't have to prove that to a freak like you!"

The end of her sentence was choked out as she coughed again, her lungs rattled loudly and a rotten metallic taste flooded her mouth. Juuzou didn't even react to it, a smile curling on his lips as he watched her. Of course it didn't affect him, she wanted to laugh at herself for trying to make someone else bend to her views. This boy had all the brains of a ten year old, and the killing intent of a ghoul, an amazing combination really. She wasn't surprised when he turned away from her, but instead of leaving he bent forward slightly. "If I take you to Shinohara-san, he'll fix you."

She stared at him for a few seconds before she gently grabbed his shoulders, noticing that his entire body stiffened when she did, and slowly wrapped her hands around his neck. She shifted slightly, and barely managed to curl her legs around him. His hands gripped behind her knees as he began to run back to the CCG branch office. As he ran, she was slightly aware that his back would dig into her body, but was surprised to find that it was well muscled. She leaned her head against him and sighed, her eyes shutting as she finally let go.

* * *

Lily was rudely woken up by Juuzou dumping her onto the cold linoleum floor. There was no warning, no words, just him dumping her onto the floor and making her bump her head for the second time that day. She glared up at him, any and all her energy being poured into the look. "I hate you."

He just shrugged, clearly not concerned as he sat down in Shinohara's spinning chair. Said Investigator was standing over her, a concerned look clouding his features. "What happened to you, Lily-san?"

"A ghoul." She said. "Fujimoto Yoko found out about what was going on, she tried to question me in an alleyway, but Juuzou killed her."

He knelt down next to her and gently picked her up in his strong arms, and set her on her desk. Her upper body immediately slouched forward, she had found out earlier that if she stayed in that position her lungs didn't hurt as much. "I'll go get a nurse to look at you, don't move around too much, okay."

"Mhm."

The man left, shutting the door behind him. Lily did as she was told and just stayed in her spot, eyes shut as she tried to block out the pain. She was almost nodding off when she felt vibrating coming from her pocket. She dragged her phone out of her pocket and stared at the number, not too surprised to see it was her mother calling. "Hello?"

"Sweetheart!" Her mother sounded breathless. "Are you alright, I've been trying to get in touch for the last hour!"

"I'm okay, just at a friend's house."

She moved the phone away form her ear as her mother let out a squeal. She was really going to have to put more effort in functioning like a normal person, especially if she wanted to keep her eardrums in one piece. "It was getting late, so I thought you were stuck in a library, but you're with friends instead! Well just so you know I've already eaten dinner with your father, so don't bother coming home tonight."

"Mom-"

"I'm sure your friend would love to have you over, especially if she knows what a recluse you are. I can barely remember her name really..."

"Sana." She said. "And I-"

"Oh yes, lovely girl!"

The door to Shinohara's office opened and a young woman came in, along with the office owner. "I've gotta go, see you tomorrow."

She put her phone away and turned her attention to the doctor. She was an obese woman with a sweet smile, and a headful of dark brown hair that didn't seem to want to obey her as she swept her bangs back for the third time since she entered the room. "Hello, I'm Dr. Watanabe Nana. According to Shinohara-san you were assaulted by a ghoul, so I'm going to give you a full checkout, okay?"

She nodded and slowly sat up, her lungs burning from the simple movements. The doctor directed her attention to the two males in the room and told them to leave. Shinohara complied, dragging a protesting Juuzou with him. "Awe, but I wanted to see Ri-chan's broken bones."

Lily frowned, but didn't say anything as they shut the door behind them and began getting undressed. Her movements were slow, so slow that she could have been mistaken for one of the elderly. She didn't think her ribs were broken, just badly bruised, if anything she just need some pain medicine and sleep. However that was going to be hard to get her hands on, her mother was banishing her from the house until tomorrow evening. She groaned as the doctor poked at her ribs, scribbling something on her notepad as she did. So she had no clean clothes, no place to sleep, and she was injured. She was basically the perfect meal all set up and ready to be handed over to the first hungry ghoul on the street. She frowned as the doctor pushed on her arm, moving it this way and that, maybe she could stay at one of those sex hotels. They were cheap, and she could probably make up some kind of excuse to the manager, pretending to be an ignorant gaijin who forgot her money. That is if she could sell retarded gaijin, she didn't think her pride would let her her, nevertheless her terrible lying skills.

The doctor took ripped a piece of paper from her notepad. "Okay, you're free to go. You just have severe bruising, you didn't suffer a concussion so I'm not too worried about that spot on your head. Just get some sleep and you'll feel much better in the morning."

"Thanks."

The woman smiled and nodded before letting herself out of the room. Lily glung on her clothes, barely making it in time before Juuzou burst into the room, his eyes lit up in excitement. "Did you break anything? Can I see it?"

"Juuzou, let her rest." Shinohara chided, shutting the office door after he entered. "Asking those type of questions is rude and inconsiderate."

He pouted, but let it go as he wondered back over to the spinning chair, abusing the poor thing once again as he spun around in it childishly. Lily stood up from the table, wrapping one arm around her ribs to try and massage them. "Thanks, Shinohara-san. I've gotta head on my way."

"Do you need money for a taxi?"

"A taxi is the least of my worries." She said, nearly spitting the words. "My Mom doesn't want me to come home, so I'm staying in a hotel tonight."

"Do you know why?"

"Nothing nefarious, she just thinks I have friends."

Shinohara stared at her for several moments before sighing and putting his hands in his pockets. "Do you want to stay with me then? It'd be dangerous for a young girl like you to be out on the streets this time of night."

"Nah, I'm fine." She said. "There's an unlimited amount of hotels for me to try to find."

"But-"

"Ri-chan can stay with me."

Lily's head snapped over to Juuzou, who was still spinning in the chair. Didn't she insult him an hour ago, so why was he constantly going out of his way to help her? If they were in the reverse situation, she would have let him fend for himself out on the street, not drag him to the CCG then offer him a place to stay. She was immediately on edge then, suspicious on the intentions he could have towards her. "Why?"

He slammed a foot to the floor, causing his spinning to stop, his infamous grin already on his lips. "I want you to make me cookies!"

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Translations:**

 **Shinto: The original religion of the Japanese. It's polytheistic religion and the Japanese worship the gods and goddesses at small shrines dotted all over Japan.**


	7. File 6

**A/N: Hello, guys! So you've probably noticed the new title and summary. This will be permenent, and I'm glad it will be since I've managed to attract another favorite and two more follows. Thanks! I also realize how short this chapter is, but I'm no good at filler, sorry.**

 **Title:** _ **The Bloody Files: A Ghoul's God**_

 **Summary: Shinohara and Juuzou are assigned to a case involving a cult full of humans that worship ghouls as 'angels'. Within the cult is the disillusioned daughter that's more than happy to sell them out for a price. Matters become worse when a binge eating ghouls breaks loose, and human cannibalism becomes common place. Tokyo is beginning to burst at the seams, and time is running out.**

 **Characters: Shinohara Yukinori, Suzuya Juuzou, Oc**

 **Pairings: Eventual Suzuya Juuzou x Oc**

* * *

Apparently the doctor had been right when she said that Lily would feel better after some sleep. Shinohara had given her his coat and directed her to a corner of the office to rest in. Three hours later and she was capable of sitting up straight without holding her ribs, and her headache had dwindled down to a pinching throb that only annoyed her, not put her through life ending pain. At the moment Shinohara and Juuzou were finishing up some last minute paperwork, it was more Shinohara than Juuzou, and they hadn't noticed her existence yet. Juuzou was tapping a pen against some paper, his head on the desk and pouting while Shinohara tapped away at his computer. "Come on, these forms aren't going to fill themselves out. Didn't you want Lily-san to make you some food?"

Juuzou yawned and slumped even further in his chair, sitting on the very edge of it. "Yeah, but I don't wanna do this, it's boring."

"How else do you expect to get a promotion?"

"Killing ghouls!" He suddenly sat up, and leaned toward Shinohara. "I'll kill ghouls and you do the paperwork!"

Shinohara laughed and shook his head. "It doesn't work that way, now finish your work so you can go, Lily-san woke up."

Lily flinched and huddled deeper into Shinohara's jacket, she wasn't awake enough to deal with Juuzou's erratic behavior. As if someone had heard her prayers and denied them, Juuzou shot out of his seat and dragged her up by her arms. She wanted to whimper as pain shot through them and straight to her brain. "Let's eat cookies!"

"Don't you have paperwork?" She said, twisting her arms around so she could get away. "I'll just walk to a hotel-"

She squealed as he grabbed her, colors swirling in front of her eyes and warmth flooding her back. When everything settled down she found herself sitting down on Juuzou's lap, one arm wrapped around her torso the other scratching at paperwork. "I finish this and you cook."

"Yes, but could you let me go, it's uncomfortable."

"Hmmm...Nope~!" His grip tightened, her body moaning as his bones dug into her bruises. "If I let go you'll run away. I wouldn't want to hunt you down and drag you back kicking and screaming."

And even though he said it as if he was complementing the weather, it made a shiver run down her spine.

* * *

Lily was sure that this day happened to be cursed. First she was assaulted by a ghoul, then she was kicked out of her home, and now she was walking the streets in the middle of the night in the freezing cold. She snuggled into Shinohara's coat, as she followed Juuzou down the sidewalk. She didn't like this part of the Eleventh Ward, it was run down and you could smell the sewage no matter where you turned. On top of that there were a ton of small alleyways, dark gaps that looked liked they were made for hungry ghouls. Eventually they stopped by a small apartment building. It was standard fare with rickety stairs that rattled as they walked up to the second floor. They stopped at the first door, Juuzou fished for something in his pockets before dragging out a single key. He quickly unlocked the door and skipped inside his home. "Don't forget to take off your shoes."

"I've lived in Japan for eight years," She said, sliding off her tennis shoes. "I think I have the basics covered."

She set the shoes by Juuzou's slippers, and hesitantly walked further into the apartment. The living room had a round table sitting in the middle of it and that was it, there was nothing else in the room. There weren't even any curtains on the grimy window or paint on the walls to give the room some life. It really didn't seem to fit the owner, his colorful personality almost seemed to demand the use of red or splashes of yellow somewhere in the barren room. In a way it reminded her of a mental hospital, with all the bare necessities and lack of color.

"Ri-chan, in here!" Juuzou's head popped behind a corner. "Make me some cookies!"

She obediently went to the kitchen, almost dismayed by how small it was. There was barely enough counter space to put a large pizza, and the sink wouldn't even hold a whole gallon of water. There was an oven, but it was tiny and she doubted she could make a good size batch that would shut the inspector up. "Well, do you have the ingredients?"

He pulled on his lip stitches for a moment before going over to a cabinet right above the sink. It opened with a loud squeak, and from Lily's vantage point she could see that it was completely empty. "Huh, I don't think so."

He shut the cabinet and walked out the room. She quickly followed behind him, and watched as he slipped back into his shoes. Lily followed his example and nearly whimpered as they trotted back into the cold again. "What kind of cookies do you want, Juuzou?"

"Hmm...Oatmeal!"

So that meant two cups of oatmeal, one cup of raisins, a cup of sugar, two eggs, and a teaspoon of vanilla. That meant it was going to be expensive, but maybe she could get around that by skipping the vanilla. She could probably save a thousand yen if she did that. Cold hands suddenly grabbed her's, locking her fingers in an iron grip. She looked up at Juuzou, who was still walking and not even looking at her. "You're annoying."

"Huh?"

His grip tightened. "Your fingers were moving. I saw it happen to a corpse once, after I cut off the hand. It twitched and twitched just like your's, but Shinohara-san would get mad if I stabbed it to make it stop moving."

She yanked her hands back, curling them back up to her chest. "Do you have a point?"

"Nope, you just annoy me."

They eventually made it to a small grocery market. Only one checkout was open, and the poor cashier looked like she was about to fall over. Lily wasted no time in going down to the baking aisle. Unlike the ones at home, this one was small and didn't have a variety when it came to sugar, vanilla, or even icing types. Everything was very basic and looked like it belonged in a dollar store not a market. She sucked on her bottom lip and searched for the sugar first debating between the white sugar and the white powdered stuff they claimed to be 'natural sweetener'. After a few moments she picked up the sugar and held it under her arm before walking down a way to find the vanilla. A woman was standing close by looked up from the box she was reading to stare, it was something Lily was used to and had long ago stopped questioning. However she was surprised to see Juuzou walk past the woman and bump into her, disrupting the box and causing it to fall to the floor. The woman blushed and quickly picked up the box and walked away. Without further ado he opened up a small grey wallet and began digging inside of it, a happy hum coming from his chest. He dragged out a handful of crumpled bills and waved them around in Lily's face. "Will this be enough, Ri-chan?"

She took the bills away and counted them out. It barely managed to add up to sixty thousand yen, what was he doing carrying around that much loose cash in the first place? "Maybe. It could be a little more though."

He opened the wallet back up and shook it, some loose change and cards fell out. He knelt to the floor and began sorting out everything before a frown pulled on his lips. "Nope, that's it. I can get some more though, that last lady was too easy anyway."

Lily pulled the rest of her attention away from the shelf to stare at Juuzou. "You stole that?"

"Yup!" The boy nodded, clearly proud of his actions. "She was too busy staring at you, she didn't even notice when my hand went in her purse. I should take you with me more often, especially when it's time to eat."

Lily knelt down next to him and carefully picked up the woman's ID card, insurance card, and the few other items on the floor before snatching the wallet from Juuzou. The boy watched in confusion as she began stuffing the things back into the wallet neatly, albeit violently. She then shut the wallet and hurried the direction she had seen the lady go down. She managed to find the woman in the dairy section, putting a jug of milk into her cart. Not wanting to cause trouble, Lily tossed the wallet on top of some packaged fish before hurrying back down the aisle where Juuzou was still waiting for her. When she came back she yanked him by the arm and brought him close. "Why in the hell would you do that? You realize that she probably works hard for every penny she gets, right? You can't just steal stuff from people because you don't wanna dig money out of your own funds. If you can't afford this stuff then you should say so, not steal from another hard working person."

"But I can afford it."

"Then why'd you steal?"

"It was fun."Her grip on him tightened and at that moment all she wanted to do was throw him across the room. Hell, even that wouldn't be enough to satisfy her irritation. She pushed him backwards and turned back to the baking goods. "What wrong, Ri-chan?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but found that no words could come out. She wasn't sure she could explain to him exactly what she felt without inflicting violence on him.

* * *

It took an hour to shop for the supplies, and then another half hour to blend all the food together. By the time everything was shoved in the oven, it was already midnight. She was covered in blood, cold, tired, and more than annoyed by Juuzou's flippant attitude towards everything. At the moment he was sitting at the table, yanking his thread out of his arm and humming a little tune. She sat on the other side of the room, her biology book on her knees and was reviewing her notes. She felt so behind with her work, and now her brain was working double time. She mouthed the words as her eyes glanced over them, doing her best to remember a sentence that would need the information. She then filed the card away and read the next one, and repeated the process all over again.

Plantae. Phylum. Cells. Nucleus...

A shrill ring sounded from Lily's cellphone, grabbing both her and Juuzou's attention. The boy shot up and went over to her, his bloody hand picking up her cellphone. "Is it done? Can I eat?"

She snatched the phone back and stuffed it in the coat's pocket. "Yeah, let's get it out of the oven first."

She followed Juuzou to the kitchen, and took down a dingy white towel. The boy yanked the oven open and a sugary sweet smell hit her straight in the face. She knelt down and gripped the flat pan and shimmied it out carefully. The cookies were a golden brown, while the raisins were a plump dark purple. She set the pan on the counter and gingerly picked up a cookie between her fore and thumb finger and handed it to him. Her eyes widened when he picked it up casually and bit into it, ignoring how hot the cookie was.

"Juuzou!" She snatched it from him and flung the cookie on the tray. He just stared at her as she grabbed his hands and jerked the water on. Once it was running cold she shoved his hands into it, gently rubbing at the inflamed skin. His fingers didn't so much as flinch, it was just his usual stiffening reaction due to being touched. "You have to be careful when they're hot, you'll burn yourself if you don't."

"I don't feel pain," He said. "so it's okay."

She looked up from his hands and stared at his face. His eyes were their usual strange mixture of dead and alive, but his eyebrows were furrowed as if he was trying to understand something. Did he seriously not understand any basic human decency? Was he honestly confused why she would plunge his hands in water?

"Juuzou..."She shook her head and turned the water off and carefully took his hands in her own as she dried his hands. "Look, be more careful next time. I'm not going to be here to bail you out every time you hurt yourself."

"You sound like Shinohara-san."

"Then listen to what's coming out of my mouth." She let go of his hands and picked the now cool cookie up. "Here, it shouldn't burn you now."

He took the cookie and bit into it, his face lighting up. "Thanks, Ri-chan!"

"Yeah, you're welcome." She wondered back to the living room and brought her book and cards back onto her lap. Her mind once again doing its best to remember every detail as she studied for her test.


	8. File 7

**A/N: Hello everyone! I'm happy to say we managed to get more favorites or likes with this story. Thank you all so much! In this chapter I do maneuver between Juuzou's head view and Lily's. I have to admit, Juuzou is a pretty hard character to pin, so yell at me in the review section if I did it wrong. ^_^;**

* * *

 **Title:** _ **The Bloody Files: A Ghoul's God**_

 **Summary: Shinohara and Juuzou are assigned to a case involving a cult full of humans that worship ghouls as 'angels'. Within the cult is the disillusioned daughter that's more than happy to sell them out for a price. Matters become worse when a binge eating ghouls breaks loose, and human cannibalism becomes common place. Tokyo is beginning to burst at the seams, and time is running out.**

 **Characters: Shinohara Yukinori, Suzuya Juuzou, Oc**

 **Pairings: Eventual Suzuya Juuzou x Oc**

* * *

Juuzou woke up ten minutes after his alarm clock went off. He stumbled out of his bed and into the living room, eager to eat the last few cookies from the night before. His stomach growled when he caught sight of the cookies, sitting innocently on a plate on his small table. In front of them was Lily, her head resting on the table and her body curled up in Shinohara's coat. He had almost forgotten about her, last he checked she was sitting in a corner droning over some kind of book. He knelt down next to her, his head tilted to the side as he stared. It amazed him how easily people could sleep, they acted like sleeping wasn't the most vulnerable position they could be in. Just sitting here he could see six different ways he could kill her. Then again Lily was oblivious to a lot of things, like how he had managed to steal the wallet. It was adorable really, she thought of herself as this superior person, but she couldn't even stand up to a feeble old ghoul like the one yesterday. He really didn't understand why Shinohara was relying so heavily on her, he was sneaky he could figure it all out by himself.

He poked her cheek, a light red mark forming over her dark skin where he touched her. So weak and fragile, he was barely touching her and already her skin was making marks. He poked her again, this time leaving his finger in her supple skin and twisting it around. Lily whined and tried to move away. "Stop it, Yukimura."

He paused in his fun and his eyes narrowed. Yukimura? No one at the church was named Yukimura, and Lily didn't have any siblings or cousins in Japan. He twisted her cheeks again, eliciting another whine past her lips.

"Dammit, didn't I say to stop?" She opened one eye wearily, and within seconds all the sleep was out of it as she recognized him. She sat up and rubbed her eyes with her fists, a small yawn escaping her mouth. "Ah, hey."

"Who's Yukimura?"

She stopped rubbing her eyes for a minute, her hands slowly lowering. "Eh?"

Lily's eyebrows were furrowed and her eyes narrowed. She was suspicious about his question, a clear sign that this person wasn't someone he was supposed to know about. "Yukimura, you said his name in his sleep. You're not having dirty dreams are you, Ri-chan~?"

"No." She yawned again as she stood up, her body popping loud enough for Juuzou to hear. "Don't you have important investigator stuff to do or something?"

Technically he did. There was a meeting scheduled for half an hour, but Juuzou didn't want to go. He didn't like his superiors and found meetings to be boring anyway. There was nothing fun about listening to someone go on an on about how enough work wasn't getting done and how they needed to kill more ghouls. Especially when that someone was one of the main obstacles from getting his very own quinque. "Yup! But Ri-chan needs to leave my house, I don't wanna come back and have to call the police."

"A thief telling me not to steal? The irony."

"I don't think you'll steal anything, Ri-chan."Juuzou stood up, taking a cookie as he did so. "I just don't want you getting killed."

* * *

Lily didn't go to school that day. She was encrusted with blood, tired, and she didn't even manage to finish her homework. Her pride wouldn't let her walk into the school building like that, so after Juuzou kicked her out of his apartment she haunted a library in the next ward over. She spent most of the day finishing her homework and studying, only stopping when she needed to eat a snack from a nearby vending machine. By the end of the day Lily felt better, or at least as good as she could be since she spent the entire day outside her own home.

She trudged up the steps to her house, Shinohara's coat balled up under one arm and her bag hanging off her shoulder. Blood was still splashed on her, but she had already decided to tell her parents that it was paint that she spilled in art class. She had repeated the lie the entire way home, even thinking about the responses her mother could come up with. If she was lucky all that would happen would be a quick scolding about the price of school uniforms. She opened up the door, but stopped in the hall, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. In the living room she could hear her father talking to someone, his tone sounded respectful and their voices lowered just enough where she could barely hear them.

She slipped off her shoes and then tiptoed over to the corner so that she could peer into the room. Her father was sitting on the couch, his back to her, however a middle aged man was sitting across from him. His somber grey eyes were completely focused on her father and they didn't seem to notice her. She recognized the man as the third ghoul that led the church, he was only ever called Tsukuda. He was rarely around and only came on certain Sundays during the month. Unlike the other two ghouls, he had never been inside their home, she wondered why he bothered coming today. Surely he didn't suspect Yoko's death having anything to do with her?

"Um, Dad?"

Her father's head jerked and he quickly turned around. "Oh, I didn't hear you come in. Lily, do you remember Tsukuda-sama, the arc-angel* from our church?"

She bowed low as she had been taught. "It's an honor, Tsukuda-sama."

"Thank you for the warm welcome, Lily-san." The man said. "Did you just come back from school?"

Lily hesitated in her answer. The man hardly had enough time to come to the church that he was apart of, she highly doubted he actually cared about her education. Then again, maybe he was only trying to be polite. But if that was the case, he could have just asked if she had enjoyed her day from school. She pulled herself up from her bow and nodded. "Yes sir."

"My, my, schools have become dirtier since I was in them. Then again, I went from school to school. I don't suppose the education system would stay the same after twenty years."

"I-it was from my art class, the paint spilled..."

The man stared at her for several moments before giving a soft smile. "Art is a splendid thing, isn't it? It shows the true feelings within the soul of the person who is creating it. I once wanted to be an artist, but I quickly realized how much of a waste it is when the people you are showing your soul to, don't understand why your soul feels certain things. A true flaw within humans, not being able to pick up other people's emotions. However that is something a ghoul is able to do easily, for example you are worried about something."

Lily felt her heart drop, her blank expression crumbling slightly under this man's stare. How had he managed to pick up on it? It had to be in her body language, ghouls were known to be able to understand that a bit better than humans. "Um, it's my grades. I-I'm doing a terrible job in my biology class."

"Really?"

"Yes sir."

Lily's heart hammered against her chest as they sat within the silence. Any moment now she was ready for the ghoul to stand up and accuse her of killing Yoko, turning them into the CCG, and desecrating all the commandments given to them by the holy bible. However the man just stood up and bowed to her father. "It was nice seeing you, Father Mc'Knight. I hope I have more time to visit you and your family again in the future."

"It was an honor, Tsukada-sama." Her father stood up and led the ghoul to the door. "If you have any more news on Fujimoto-sama, please be sure to inform us."

"Of course." He turned back to glance at Lily. "Good bye, Lily-chan. I hope your discoveries with art continues to bear more of your soul to the world."

With that the man left, immediately dispelling any tension Lily may have had before. She leaned against the wall, taking in deep breaths that seemed fresher with the ghoul gone. Her father raised an eyebrow at her, concern flooding his green eyes. "Are you alright, you look sick."

"I'm fine." She pushed herself off the wall. "I'm going to go finish up my homework."

"Okay."

Lily went up to the stairs and began climbing them, eager to go to her room and lock herself inside for the rest of the night, but she stopped when she heard her father call her again.

"You know I'm proud of you?" She glanced back at her father. "Yeah, I know I don't say it often, but I really am proud of you. You work really hard in school, with the church, even keeping up with a foreign culture. I've asked a lot out of you, and you've managed to prove yourself each and every time. So...I'm proud of you."

She stared at her father, and for the second time today she was surprised. Her father didn't tell her that he was proud of her. That he loved her? Yes. But never that he was proud of her accomplishments. She turned all the way around and went down to her father, wrapping her arms around his thick frame. "Thanks, Dad."

He pat her head. "Good girl, now go take a shower, you smell like blood."

* * *

Juuzou spun in Shinohara's spinning chair, barely paying attention to the conversation a senior analyst and his mentor were having. Every time the chair went around a rotation he would allow his foot to push off from the desk, causing an ear splitting shriek to sound from the old metal. The sixth time around the analyst grabbed the back of his chair, stopping him id-rotation and nearly causing him to tumble to the floor. He looked up at the old woman with a cheeky smile, causing her craggy face to scowl. "Pay attention, boy. How do you ever expect to repay Shinohara-san of all the kindness he's done for you if you continue to make a mockery of yourself like this?"

Juuzou's eyes narrowed and the smile on his face became grim. He didn't know why, but he didn't like when people told him that he had to repay Shinohara for what he'd done for him. His fingers untangled themselves from the bottom of the chair and inched their way towards the old woman, but Shinohara jerked the chair around, causing it to spin again.

"It's okay, Oda-san." Shinohara soothed. "Now are you sure you have the identity of this mystery girl?"

The woman's gaze snapped over to Shinohara. "Yes, her name is Tachibana Nana. She's the mother of two and, according to all her medical records, completely human. You can check on her if you'd like, but since she seems involved with the church it could spell trouble if she gets suspicious. You may just want to take her out, it's clear she was eating human meat and you can see that there are ghouls in the image."

Juuzou's waning attention snapped back completely again. He didn't mind taking out ghouls, it was way more fun than paperwork and the only thing he was good at. All day he had listened to other people talk and filled out boring paper work, he was ready to stretch his legs and have some fun. He twisted around to look at Shinohara, the older man was staring at the video on the computer screen.

"Have you ever seen a ghoul plead like this though?" He said. "It almost looks like she's choking on the meat while she eats. There's been a few cannibalism cases recently, this could be one of them."

And with that Juuzou's interest in the conversation disappeared completely. He kicked the desk a little harder as he tried to go faster on his make shift ride, he wondered when they would go eat. He was starving and had't eaten since this morning, and even then it had been a meager three cookies that Lily had left for him. Speaking of which, he wondered if the girl had left his house. He had several traps set up in his room, even though he would have found Lily's corpse hanging from his ceiling fan funny, he doubted Shinohara would like it. He should probably call her using Shinohara's phone, maybe he could even bribe her to come back some time to cook for him, or sneak into her house. He didn't really care either way, a kitchen was a kitchen in his eyes.

His train of thought stopped completely when the chair stopped again, this time by his mentor. The old analyst was nowhere to be found, he probably managed to annoy her enough to get her to leave. "Are we gonna go kill ghouls now?"

"I need to call Lily-san first, then we'll see about lunch, I'm starving."

Juuzou's ears perked up at that and he jumped out his seat, producing Shinohara's phone from his pocket. "Here you go, don't worry if she doesn't answer though, if she listened shouldn't be hanging from my ceiling fan."

* * *

 **Translations** :

 **Arc-Angel: According to the Jewish and Christian religions, Arc-angels are powerful angels in the angel hierarchy. Now draw this back to ghouls and take a wild guess...**


	9. File 8

**A/N: Hello everyone! So we have another favorite, isn't that nice?**

 **Title:** _ **The Bloody Files: A Ghoul's God**_

 **Summary: Shinohara and Juuzou are assigned to a case involving a cult full of humans that worship ghouls as 'angels'. Within the cult is the disillusioned daughter that's more than happy to sell them out for a price. Matters become worse when a binge eating ghouls breaks loose, and human cannibalism becomes common place. Tokyo is beginning to burst at the seams, and time is running out.**

 **Characters: Shinohara Yukinori, Suzuya Juuzou, Oc**

 **Pairings: Eventual Suzuya Juuzou x Oc**

* * *

Lily grit her teeth as she listened to the high pitched chatter on the TV program her mother was watching. She whisked the eggs up in a bowl and poured the mixture into the frying pan, the sizzling drowning out some of the noise. Lily hated watching game shows, she found them annoying and staged, but her mother had an obsession with them so she just couldn't shut the TV off. "Mom, did you get dressed already?"

"Yes dear," Her mother called form the living room. "I'm just waiting on breakfast! I even called Dr. Kasegawa. She said that she would be there a little late since her sister-in-law is in town. Isn't that nice? I heard she had a baby last fall, so this is probably a bit of time off for her..."

Her mother's chatter began to melt into the background as Lily was reminded of her mother's medication. Ever since she was four years old, her mother had gone to various therapists to help her sort her issues. However she had been seeing Dr. Kasegawa for the last three years and there was a significant improvement in her disposition. Maybe it had something to do with the medications she was taking? She sighed and ladled the eggs onto a plate and grabbed an apple out of the bowl on the table as she made her way into the living room."Here Mom."

Her mother wordlessly grabbed the plate, not even acknowledging her daughter as she watched the TV. The game show had turned off and was replaced by the news, a few police officers were speaking with a news reporter. "And could the murderers be ghouls?"

"No ma'am," The male police officer said. "the culprits have gone through all the tests and so far we've found out that they were humans. They've been murdering passerbys here in the Eleventh Ward for awhile now, taking the victims and processing their bodies like we would animals. We estimate that there's been at least sixteen victims that have been murdered and eaten."

The TV suddenly switched to black. Lily glanced down at her mother, the woman staring at her food with a grim look. "People truly are terrible. It's one thing for the angels to punish humans, but a human should never harm another human. Truly terrible."

"I guess." She glanced at her phone before leaning down and kissing her mother on the forehead. "Gotta go before I'm late for school. Call me if you need me to pick up anything."

Her mother loosely hugged her waist. "I will dear. Please be safe."

Lily grabbed her bag off the sofa and went to the door, slipping her shoes onto her feet. She glanced at herself one final time in the mirror before heading out the door. The sidewalk wasn't as crowded as it usually was thanks to the light drizzle coming down from the sky. One habit that Lily had never been able to get into was taking an umbrella with her. More often than not she forgot them or would break them when trying to pry them open, so she usually just walked in the rain with her hood up. 'This just isn't my week, huh?'

She tightened the strings to her hood and ducked her head down in an attempt to get comfortable. Why did she bother to put so much effort into school again? Oh yeah, she already missed two days of school. If she missed another one then she'd have the teachers asking her what was wrong and how they could help. Then there was Sana, no doubt the girl was already complaining about how she abandoned her when they were so close to a math quiz. She smiled slightly and straightened up her posture a bit. Maybe today was't going to be so bad.

* * *

Juuzou watched Shinohara go through his phone for the umpteenth million time that morning. He leaned over and snatched up a doughnut and bit into it, ignoring the irritated look that one of his co-workers gave. "Maybe she's just busy?"

"Unlikely." Shinohara said, stowing his phone away in his pocket. "Last I checked she doesn't leave her house often. If something happened to her then our foothold in the church may be unstable."

The younger investigator didn't really have the same worry as Shinohara did. His mentor had already had someone bring in Tachibana on some questionable grounds, and they found out she was human. As far as he was concerned they should go in and kill everyone since it looked like cannibalism was happening in the church. He wondered if they sacrified people to their god before eating them. His thoughts were halted when Shinohara grabbed his coat from the back of Juuzou's spinning chair and shrugged it on. "Come on, we've got to go question Tachibana."

He pulled himself up and followed his mentor out of the conference room and down the stuffy halls. He wasn't entirely sure why they were allowed to keep Tachibana since she wasn't a ghoul, but he still found the woman interesting. A long time ago he knew a boy that would eat other humans. He eventually became really shaky and Mama fed him to one of her 'pets'. According to her, the human flesh had tainted him and made him too weak to fight in the arena. It was thanks to that boy's death that he had gotten his chance to fight in the arena for the very first time. Juuzou wasn't sure if the human flesh had caused it, he had taken a nibble on days he wasn't allowed to eat and even to this day his hands didn't shake as bad as that boy's had.

When they finally came up to the small cell that Tachibana was being held in, he eyed her carefully. Her body was't shaking at all. She was just hunched over, the thin blanket taunt around her shoulders, and her eyes a puffy red. She looked up when she caught then staring, and lept off the small bed. She stumbled over to the window and slammed her hands against the window. "Please tell me I can get out of here. My-my kids haven't seen me in days! I need to see my kids. Please!"

Shinohara put his hands up in a soothing gesture. "Calm down, Tachibana-san. Your children are safe and sound at your mother's house in Osaka. So for right now I need you to tell me what you know about First Faith Church."

The woman's nose wrinkled and the strained look in her eyes didn't leave. "Why would you want to know about a church? I'm not even religious, so there's no way I can help you. The fact that my medical test proved I was human should be enough to prove I've done nothing wrong."

"I understand, Tachibana-san," He said. "but there are many human ghoul sympathizers."

"I'm not one of them." The woman bit her bottom lip and looked away. The look made Juuzou giddy. The woman was lying to their faces. "My husband was religious when he was alive, but he died in a car accident last year. I went to this church you're talking about right after he died, but I haven't been there since. The leader was a gaijin* and he personally talked me through my moment of grief, but I never went back since I'm not religious."

"Did you notice anything suspicious about the church?"

The woman shook her head. "Everyone was very nice. No one even said anything when my youngest began to cry in the middle of service."

"And the food?"

The woman's eyes flashed and her entire body tensed. "What do you mean?"

"There been reports of cannibalism connected with this church." He said. "Did you think there was anything like that when you went?"

"No..." She shook her head. "Now can I please go? Everything checked out, I heard the doctors say I wasn't a ghoul and-"

"But you had traces of human meat from the contents we pumped out of your stomach." The woman's eyes widened and she backed away from the glass. The expression made Juuzou giggle. "You may not be a ghoul, Tachibana-san, but you're worse than one. You're a human and should no better than to prey on your own kind."

"Shut up!" She held her shoulders and shook her head wildly. "I didn't mean to! They told me it would take away all the guilt. It was my fault Kaito left the house that night, he didn't even want to go pick up dinner. Please!"

She fell to her knees and hoarse screams escaped her lips. Juuzou laughed and twirled around, they were now one step closer to finishing this case. That meant he was just a step closer to getting his very own quinque! His head jerked in Shinohara's direction when the man began to walk away from the cell. Juuzou ran to catch up to him, his hands tangled in a fist behind them. "So they're guilty, right? Are we gonna go kill them?"

"..."

He tilted his head to the side. Shinohara's mouth was in a grim line and his eyes were narrowed as if he was thinking about something. He would have thought Shinohara would be happy, this meant that there was less work to do if they finished this case. "Shinohara-san?"

"Juuzou..." He stopped walking and turned back to look at his protege. "Not every case can be solved by going through and killing people. If we did that we would have to kill everyone involved with the church, that would include Lily-san."

"So."

Shinohara backtracked, trying to make his point a bit clearer for the younger investigator. "Well it's not everyone's fault. Sometimes when people are so sad or upset about something they're willing to do anyting to make it better. When someone is stronger and has more power it's their job to protect and guide the weak, but sometimes they guide them down the wrong paths. That's what going on in the church, the strong are guiding the weak down the wrong path."

Juuzou just shrugged and began walking again. "Relying on people makes me sick. If you're too weak to think for yourself then you don't need to live."

"Weren't you weak once?"

Juuzou stopped walking, a grim smirk curling onto his lips. "Yup! But I got stronger and now I can kill almost anyone."

The young investigator was proud of his answer. But he wondered why Shinohara shook his head, almost as if he had said the wrong thing.

* * *

Lily walked down the sidewalk, cursing at herself the entire way home. She had stayed late with Oshiro-sensei so she could get some extra studying in, while it was helpful she ended up leaving the school after her train's normal schedule. So now she was returning home three hours later than normal, the sky was getting dark, and she could only imagine how many ghouls were clinging to the alleyways. She had texted her mother over an hour ago saying she was going to be late, but she hadn't gotten an answer. "If she kicks me out again I swear to God..."

She didn't think her mom would kick her out again. She had complained vehemently against that little stunt for hours when she got home that afternoon, it eventually got to the point that her mother actually apologized. It had surprised her at first, but she had accepted the apology and even went as far as to cook her mother a snack. It seemed that her ability to be bribed came from her mother, she was willing to almost do anything as long as she was promised something to eat. She fished her phone out of her pocket and began typing a text to her mother, but stopped when a cheerful ring followed by a colorful happy face letting her know she got a text message. Clicking on it she frowned when she saw that it came from some unknown number. "We have one."

She clicked in a quick reply and slipped her phone back into her pocket. Just seconds later it rang again, this time a familiar name popping up on the screen. "Shinohara? Didn't I have his number in my phone?"

She clicked the button and held the phone to her ear. "Hey, Shinohara-san. Sorry about that, my phone didn't recognize your number. What is it that you found?"

"Wait, what do you mean your phone didn't recognize the number?"

"It just didn't." Her eyes widened a thought crossing her mind. Did that mean that someone had taken her phone and fiddled with it, erasing Shinohara's number from her phone? She could have done it on accident when she was downloading a new app at school today, but this number was a pretty specific one to erase. "I'm gonna hang up now."

"Lily-san wait-"

She clicked the end button and shoved her phone back into her pocket. If her phone was compromised that mean that anyone could be listening in on her. Who knew how long they could be listening in, or how many conversations had been picked up. Tsukada coming to the house could have been an omen, a sign that everything was getting ready to fall apart. She sighed and turned another corner, going down a well lit shortcut that was flanked by a pet shop on the left and an old noodle shop on the right. Halfway down it she felt the rain pick up and soak through her clothes and stick to her body. She looked up at the sky, the rain falling all over her face and seeping into her mouth. However instead of the salty taste of rain she tasted something metallic and almost sour, the taste sticking to every single taste bud o her tongue. Her stomach heaved and twisted, almost on instinct she leaned forward and vomited. Her knees trembled as sh continued to empty her stomach, the harsh stinging in her throat making her eyes tear up. When nothing else could come up she slowly stood up again, a hand braced against the wall so she wouldn't fall into the puddle she had created.

Blood had just rained down on her, and for some reason she reacted worse than when she had seen Fujimoto murdered. Maybe because that was a ghoul that was guilty of eating people, and this blood came from some unknown person. Maybe an innocent person? She glanced up at the roof, it was as dark as it always was and nothing suspicious popped out at her. Next to a trashcan there was an old rusted ladder that led straight up to the roof, if she took that she could see what had happened. Maybe even call Shinohara and ask him to bring his quinque and take care of whatever was lingering on the roof. Quiet squelches and snaps began to fill the alleyway, and if she didn't know any better she could hear someone chewing. Turning on her heel she fled down the alleyway and decided to go the long way home, she'd just call Shinohara and tell him about the incident in the morning. For now she just wanted to take a shower and lock herself up in her room.

* * *

 **Translations:**

 **Gaijin: So yeah, once again a very rude way to say foreigner in Japanese.**


	10. File 9

**A/N: Wow...This got insanely popular while I was on my hiatus. Thank you guys so much, all the interest in this helped me get through this chapter much quicker than I normally would! And I'm surprised to see reviews, I really enjoy reading those, but that's obvious, isn't it?**

* * *

Lily stared at a brightly lit screen, her legs hanging off the side of her bed and her phone in hand. Her thumb tapped at the screen, watching as numbers and names slid up and down the display in an array of bright colors. Sana, her mother, her father, her grandmother and a slew of other relatives were all in her phone book, but Shinohara's number was absent. She had even gone so far as to check her email and text messages, but anything sent between them was eerily absent. She moaned and let her arm drop back onto her bed and shut her eyes. She couldn't even begin to figure out who touched her phone, she had let Sana borrow it, her Mom had handed it to her, and she had left it on her bathroom counter. Maybe she could give it to Shinohara and ask him to scan it or something. A low tap dragged her out of her thoughts, causing Lily to sit up in her bed. She was home alone right now, both of her parents were staying late at the church. She crawled out of her bed and went up to her door, putting an ear against it. All she could hear were her neighbors arguing again, but other than that it was completely silent. She opened the door and walked down the narrow hallway and into the living, just to find Juuzou shutting the window.

"Why do you keep climbing in through my windows?"

He spun around and stared at her for a moment, before a grin broke out on his face. "Awe, I was gonna try to scare you, Ri-chan. You're a lot more perceptive than I thought you were."

She wasn't sure if she should actually take the compliment or not. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be hunting ghouls or something?"

"Shinohara-san told me to check up on you." He said. "He got worried after your phone call, he probably thought that you blew our mission."

"No one's said anything so far, you'll probably know Sunday if we end up sacrificing you."

"Do you really sacrifice virgins?"

"No."

He pouted, clearly upset by her response. "Awe, but that would make it so interesting! Sitting around and listening to sermons is so boring."

"This conversation is boring." She pointed to the window. "I didn't blow your mission, so please get out of my house."

He stared at her for a moment before coming closer to her. She flinched when he reached a hand out and touched her face, right under her left eye. "Wh-what are you doi-"

"There's blood on you." She shut her eyes as he scratched the spot with a sharp chipped fingernail. "You didn't eat anyone, did you, Ri-chan?"

"If I was a ghoul you would've known by now." She pushed him away and rubbed at the spot. She could have sworn she got it all off when she got in the shower half an hour ago. The thought brought her back to earlier, when blood splashed all over her from a rooftop. Maybe she should tell Juuzou about what happened? Who knows, he may even be curious enough to leave and go look at the crime scene, effectively leaving her alone. "I was actually sprayed with blood on my way home from school today. All of it came off a rooftop a few blocks from here, probably a ghoul."

"That was a cocky ghoul then." She raised an eyebrow at his statement, making him giggle. "Oh Ri-chan, I forgot how ignorant most civilians are about ghouls. Ghouls mostly feed at night, but the more powerful ones don't mind taking their meals during the day. I'm lucky it didn't notice you, if it did you wouldn't be able to make me cookies."

With that he skipped to the kitchen and opened up the cabinets, taking down some flour and baking powder. Lily just watched him, not moving from her spot in the living room. So what she had witnessed was a powerful ghoul? She had never heard of ghoul sightings so close to her home so she had never been suspicious of her neighbors, but this news changed everything. Did that mean someone in the neighborhood was a ghoul? She snuggled into her fluffy jacket, a wave of exhaustion going through her, why was everything so complicated?

"Ri-chan, come cook!"

She blinked a few times to get her bearings before scowling when she saw the mess of products and bowls on the counter. "Juuzou, just stop. If you're gonna insist on barging in on my life and demanding stuff from me, then at least keep out of the way."

She hurried into the kitchen and put away all the unnecessary products he had taken out, miso soup packets how stupid could he be, and the large pots. Once only the things necessary for chocolate almond cookies were out, she began throwing them into a bowl and stirring it all up. Juuzou sat on the tiny stove top, watching her every move while his legs kicked back and forth. Once all the ingredients were mixed she preheated the oven and made the tiny balls and put them on her greased pan. Every once in a while her eyes would drift over to the clock hanging above the microwave. It was already ten o'clock, it wouldn't be long before her parents came through the door and asked why Juuzou was in their house. Even though her mother became ecstatic when she brought friends over, she doubted either of them would appreciate a boy in their house at such late hours. It practically reeked of suspicion. She just knew she'd get accused for all types of things, and she really didn't want her parents to think she was having sex with Juuzou of all people.

She peeked a glance at the boy, he was too busy picking at the stitches on his arms to notice her. He wasn't bad looking per se. He was outrageously skinny and needed to eat more often, had chapped lips that most girls wouldn't go for, and his stitching were pretty far out there. On top of that he was a bit too feminine for her tastes, and his eyes creeped her out. It sounded incredibly shallow, but Lily was happy to wallow in her shallowness. But more important than looks, at least to her, was the fact that he seemed a bit crazy. Not in the wanna have a good time type of way, but more like he needed to be admitted to a mental hospital. The only thing going for him was the fact that he was already starting his career at...Well, he looked about sixteen-seventeen years old. Whatever the case was, she didn't think that Juuzou made good boyfriend material.

She shook her head and put her focus back on the cookies, finished putting them on the pan, and popped them in the oven. Taking her phone out her jacket pocket, she tapped the timer app, then shrieked as the phone was ripped out of her hand. "Juuzou, give that back!"

The boy raised it over his head and stood on his tip toes, his tongue stuck out like a two year old. "Nu-uh, what's the magic word~?"

"Please."

"Nope~!"

She growled and reached out, leaning most of her body weight onto the boy. "I swear to God that if you don't give that back-!"

"I thought you didn't believe in God."

She grabbed his arm and jerked at him, her outstretched arm brushing against her phone. Her eyes widened when his hand opened and the phone fell to the floor with a loud crack. "Look what you made me do, Ri-chan."

She ignored him as she knelt down and picked up the phone, clicking the on button with a prayer on her lips. She had just gotten this phone for her birthday, she doubted her parents would be happy to see it broken already. However, no matter how many times she clicked the on button, the cracked screen never flickered to life. She grit her teeth and stood up, her phone hanging loosely from her hand. "Get out."

"Huh?" He tilted his head. "Are you really upset that I broke your phone? What if it was bugged, you didn't have Shinohara-san's number earlier-"

"Shut up!" She jabbed a finger into his bony chest. "You invaded my home, broke my phone, and keep annoying me. Just get out and leave me alone! I can figure this out on my own!"

Lily was breathing heavily, her heart beating hard in her chest, and tears threatening to fall. She didn't even know why she wanted to cry, it was just a phone. She could easily go without one, so why was she about to cry? She rubbed her eyes with one hand and pointed to the window with the other. "Go, if you don't I'll call the police."

"You're really stubborn, Ri-chan," She flinched when she felt a warm breath puffing in her ear. "but you're breaking."

She ripped her hand off her face, only to find no one in the apartment. It was almost dizzying really, she half expected it all to be a nightmare induced from the stress piled on her lately. She took a deep breath, her body shuddering from the simple action. It was only Juuzou, and Juuzou was crazy. She wasn't breaking, she was perfectly fine. She was always fine.

She was just fine.

* * *

Lily pushed the phone in her father's direction, head bowed and eyes fixed to the kitchen table. "I'm sorry..."

She heard the shifting of cloth and a sharp breath come from her father. She could already imagine his eyebrows furrowed as he moved the device in his large hands, the beginning of a scolding on his tongue. But instead of an annoyed sigh, harsh words, or price tags shoved in her head, she heard her father give a low laugh. She looked up quickly, doing her best to keep her face in it's signature neutral expression. "I suppose even you're addicted to your phone. I wouldn't have realized it with how much you study and read."

She swallowed her shock. "I talk to Sana all the time, Juuzou too."

Her father looked up from her pink device. "Juuzou? That's the boy from church?"

She nodded, watching his expression carefully. She figured she may as well tell her parents about Juuzou, she didn't want them to be surprised about finding him in the house when they were gone. Plus it would explain the 'strange' unlabeled phone number saved in her phone. If she established some type of relationship with Juuzou in her parents eyes, she wouldn't have to sneak around and lie so much. Plus, it was only natural that she begun talking with Juuzou, he was the only person in her age group at the church.

"Do you like him?" He asked with a playful quirk of his eyebrows.

"No, he's just a friend."

Her father stared at her for a moment, before his voice lowered. "Does it have anything to do with Yukimura?" She grit her teeth at the mention of her previous boyfriend. Her father caught the sound and reached across the table, gently enveloping his one large hand over her two smaller ones. "It's okay, you know. Yukimura was a very nice young man, but he's been dead for almost a year now. I think he would want you to move on and find a new boyfriend to court you. This Juuzou fellow seems like a nice young man, and his uncle is very respectable, if you gave him a chance I would approve."

She wanted to laugh at the irony of the situation. She also wanted to cry, scream, and just laugh at all of it. Honestly, if there was a God then it was being pretty cruel to its followers right now. She let out a low sigh and stood up, removing her hands from her father's. "I really did love Yukimura, and I know it sounds stupid to pine over a dead guy, but he was really good to me. If I just moved on..."

If she just moved on from Yukimura, what? She really did miss him, that idiot had done so much for her and just moving on to date another guy, especially Juuzou, seemed insulting. Lily was proud of her ridiculously high standards, and she wasn't going to lower them because her father had the wrong impression of some guy who was going to take down his church. Honestly, why were they even having this conversation? They both had better things to do than talk about her miserable ideals about love.

"It's okay, sweetheart," Her father said. "I just hope you make the right decision. As for your phone..." He let out a gusty sigh. "We'll get you a new one tomorrow afternoon when you come back from school. Okay?"

"Really?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm upset that you broke your new phone," He said. "so I expect you to get a part time job after this, understand?"

Lily nodded her head, doing her best to keep from screaming. She was going to kill Juuzou the next time she saw his smug face.

* * *

"That's your new phone?"Juuzou was leaning over her pew, some of his white hair tickling Lily's face. It was Sunday morning and Lily had become a ball of irritation since Thursday night. It had gotten so bad that her mother had taken her out to a spa treatment with her yesterday, and as much as Lily loved going to the spa, she didn't feel better. The only thing that would fix her irritation would be punching Juuzou in the face, which was something she couldn't do right now.

She looked up from the colorful screen and twisted around so she could look at the source of her anger. "Yeah, I got it Friday. By the way, give me your number."

"Why?"

"So I can call you, why else?" She waved the phone in his face. "All my numbers are gone, remember?"

"You didn't have my number."

"Well I want it now."

The boy leaned forward, his eyes narrowed. "Do you like me, Ri-chan?"

"Huh?"

"You never wanted my number before," He explained, his voice shifting to a sing song. "you always called Shinohara-san. Now you want my number all of a sudden? That's suspicious~."

"Do you want my number or not?"

He shoved a hand into his pocket and took out his own silver device. "I'll just call you, I don't know how to do all that fancy stuff."

Hearing that come from his mouth sounded wrong. It sounded like something her grandmother back in Mississippi would have said, not a young man like Juuzou. Maybe the CCG didn't teach their younger employees all the ins and outs to technology. A loud heavy metal song came from her phone, attracting some attention from the people around her. She quickly silenced her phone, ignoring the curious look from Juuzou as she added his number to her slowly growing phone book. "Hey, how did you know my number?"

"I was going through Shinohara-san's phone."

She twisted back around in her seat as the angel walked into the building. Murrmurrs of respect echoed through the room as he walked through the aisle. When he was close enough she got out of her seat and gave a slight bow. "Good morning, Tomoyama-sama."

The man looked her over with that patronizing smile of his. Between Yoko, Tsukuda, and Tomoyama, she would take Tsukuda and Yoko any day. Tomoyama was a patronizing ass that honestly thought he was god's gift to man kind. She brought herself back into a standing position and moved to go sit down, but a cold hand grabbed her wrist. "Lily-chan, I wanted to know if you had any plans later on today."

She just stared at the older man with a blank expression. Honestly, he was twenty-two years old, didn't he have anything better to do than ask out high school girls? He was probably the type of person that grabbed their butts on the train. "I was going to go home and study."

"You're a very studious girl, but doesn't that get boring?"

"No."

He hummed, putting a hand on his chin in thought. "Well, I still believe you need to relax. So why don't we go to a cafe?"

She wanted to point out that he was a ghoul and wouldn't be able to eat anything there, but didn't bring it up in fear that he would get upset. She wasn't afraid for her own safety, but more that he would suggest another place that was far more boring than a cafe. She let out a sigh and looked to her father, but he was merely smirking. "I'll think about it."

The man swept up her hand and brought it to his lips, giving it a gentle peck. "I'll be awaiting your answer, Lily-chan."

She watched the man go to the alter and stage, a frown on her lips. Normally she didn't mind if she was asked out, she was flattered actually, but right now she was too ticked off to feel anything other than annoyance. She got back into her seat and curled her knees up her chin and began fiddling with her phone, her thoughts tumbling all over the place. Really, what would her father gain for trying to set her and Tomoyama up? Unless he had figured everything out and was trying to keep tabs on her now.

"You should go."

She looked up from her phone, her scowl deepening when she saw it was Shinohara. "Why would I do that?"

He just stared at her for several moments, as if trying to remind her of the real reason they dragged themselves out of bed on Sundays. And yes, going out to a cafe and pretending to crush on Tomoyama would give her leverage, she really didn't want to stoop that low. The only thing worse than that would be whoring herself out to ghouls. Then again, she was putting herself in danger in order to help them, and that wasn't part of their deal. "Fine, I'll do it, but I want a job."

* * *

 **Review Responses:**

 **Jtwizzeeyy: Thanks! That would be funny, but you'll have to read to find out if it happens or not.**

 **AlwaysRunning9: Thank you, it was really hard keeping Juuzou in character. Shinohara was easier, but his character type is often done in tons of stories. I honestly didn't think that Lily was that interesting, she's literally a shut in that likes to study. But I'm glad you're enjoying her. ^_^**


	11. File 10

**A/N: Alas, not much to say other than thank you.**

* * *

Lily was not a novice when it came to dating. She had gone on a plethora dates with Yukimura, and plenty of boys before that. She didn't want to brag, but she was actually rather popular to the males in the student body. She wasn't sure why, but she was sure it had something to do with her status of 'foreigner'. Regardless, she had never dated anyone more than a year older than her, and now she was walking to a cafe with a twenty-one year old ghoul. She peeked up at him, her nose wrinkling as she took in his hyper masculine features. With his smooth red hair, chiseled face, and nice suit he was certainly the type of guy that plenty of girls in her class would drool over. Heck she was sure even Sana, who was a self proclaimed asexual, would want to drag this guy home and rape him. But his attitude destroyed any of his arguably nice looks, she just wish he would shut his mouth and let her look at him. He worked better as a pretty arm piece that you showed off to your friends than an actual date. That statement would make her ethics teacher proud...

"Lily-chan, are you alright? You don't seem to be enjoying yourself?"

She blinked and looked away, keeping her focus on walking through the busy sidewalk. "

"I'm fine." When his concerned look didn't disappear she gave a shaky smile. "Um, I guess I'm just tired."

"That's understandable. Your family wakes up early just to tidy and set up the church. It truly is a wonderful thing to do, and not expect a single soul to help. It's always amazes me when people can be so selfless."

She wasn't sure if he was being genuine or if he was trying to flatter her, either way she wasn't amused. If he thought it was so nice, then he should help out! Did he realize how much caffeine she had to inhale just to get out of bed on a cold morning? Instead of voicing her opinion she just muttered a quick thanks. A few more minutes of silent walking they made it to a small cafe nestled between a tattoo parlor and a butcher. The harsh smell of chemicals and blood made her gag, a sound that caught Tomoyama's attention.

"Are you alright?"

"F-fine."

A warm arm slid around her waist, pulling her into Tomoyama's body. The blood and chemicals dissipated behind a layer of a lemon smell that was followed by something oddly metallic but not off putting. "This place is in an unfortunate location, but I always hear humans rave about the cupcakes sole here. I've heard you in passing mention that it was one of your favorite foods."

Her eyebrows wrinkled as she mulled his statement around in her head as they entered the shop. She had only said that once at church, and that was when Yukimura was alive. Just how attentive was he? She jerked away from him when he went up to a table, and sat down in the chair closest to the door. Tomoyama smoothly slid into the chair in front of her and gave, what she assumed, was a reassuring smile. A busty young woman flounced up to them and asked for their orders. Tomoyama ordered water, while she asked for five chocolate cupcakes with coconut icing. Since Tomoyama was paying, she had checked before even agreeing to this date, she didn't feel the least bit guilty about getting so much food. The woman wrote down their orders and went back to the counter, leaving the both of them alone once again.

This was the part of first dates that she hated. The sit there and try to come up with some kind of conversation part. Unlike any of the other boys she had went out with, she didn't have know anything about Tomoyama other than the fact that she was supposed to see him as some kind of deity. Oh, and that he was a jerk, but that went without saying.

"Tomoyama-sama,-"

"Just Tomoyama." He said. "If we're going to be intimate I think it's fair to drop the honorifics*. At least, if that if okay with you, Lily-chan."

And that was completely unexpected. "N-no, it's fine. I didn't grow up with that type of thing so..."

He gave a small smile. "I know. Do you like it here in Japan?"

"I guess. The food took forever to get used to, but I like some of the entertainment mediums and the convenience stores are alright."

"Just those?" He raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You've never been to the festivals or shrines*? Some of the largest ones are here in Tokyo, plus there's all the cultural events that go on, and the samurai reenactments."

"My parents are religious, if you haven't noticed."

"Well on our next date I'll have to fix this travesty of justice."

Lily looked up sharply at that statement. He hadn't even asked her if she wanted to go on another date, was he really that full of himself that he thought he would score again? Then again it could be a ghoul thing, if Tomoyama was a high ranking ghoul, he was probably incredibly cocky and got whatever he wanted when he wanted. An awkward silence ensued until the waitress came back with their orders. Lily's eyes widened as she took in the plate that was set in front of her. Five cupcakes, large ones at that, were sitting in front of her. They were topped with a caramel colored icing that had just the right amount of coconut spread through out it. She carefully picked one up and bit into it, her insides squirming in pure joy. It was sweet with just a hint of nutty that was quickly washed away by the overwhelming taste of coconut. She hummed and continued to devour her food, all of her attention off her date. So maybe this little outing wasn't a complete waste of her time, she may just forgive Shinohara next time she saw him. She swallowed the food in her mouth, and bit into the cupcake again.

"Lily-chan?"

"Hm?"

"What do you know about that Juuzou and Shinohara duo?"

* * *

Juuzou sipped on his drink while he watched Shinohara through the integration room window. Even though they had managed to get Tachibana to admit that she was eating humans, she hadn't said a word about where any of it was being located, where the camera feed was going, or anything about the ghoul's involved. She had shut down completely and this only irritated him. They had almost finished this case, he could feel it, and now this woman wanted to sit around and be all noble. He bit down on the end of his straw, eyes narrowed as the woman locked eyes with him, she quickly looked away and bowed her head again. Why was Shinohara asking her questions again? Couldn't they just throw her in with a hungry ghoul? After a good ten minutes she would start talking so much you'd think she was on one of those talk shows they played in the lobby. He perked up when Shinohara stood up and made his way to the door, when it opened he quickly maneuvered himself so he could stand in front of Shinohara.

"She didn't talk."

"Not a word. It's like she shut down, I'm not sure if it's because she's scared of us, or the people that she's associated with." Shinohara sighed and shook his head. "If this keeps on we're not going to have a choice but to start using other methods. I really hope it doesn't come down to that with her family and all."

Juuzou just shrugged, but knew better than to say anything when his mentor looked like that. His eyes looked heavy and the wrinkles in his face looked a little more obvious. It was moments like these that he wondered if this was the same man who had no problems taking out a problem ghoul with all the gusto and power of a younger man. The man sighed again and began walking down the hall to the elevator on the other end, Juuzou silently followed behind him, taking sips from his milkshake. When they got to the right floor they were immediately met by a woman telling them to take a look at the paperwork on Shinohara's desk. They headed to the office and on the desk was a pile of paperwork, Juuzou had a sneaking suspicion that everyone threw it in here to get back for all the things he did to them.

"Awe, I just finished all the paperwork!"

Shinohara picked up the top file and looked over it before shutting it. "No time to complain, we need to dispatch a ghoul."

"Really?" The gloom in his eyes had died and was replaced with an excited tint.

"Yup, a binge eater."

* * *

Lily opened the door to her apartment, her eyes not even taking accost of anything as she walked in. The house was quiet, proof that her parents were still at the church even though she had been gone for nearly an hour. She took a deep breath, her body shuddering when she did, as she took off her shoes.

 _"What do you know about that Juuzou and Shinohara duo?"_

The question had been unexpected, she would have been less surprised if he told her that he was pregnant and she was the father. Lily had been unsure how to respond, and had abruptly stood up and went to the bathroom. And if that didn't look suspicious, when she came back she had laughed off the question and said something about what a weird question that was. The rest of the date had been just a casual pass of information such as likes, dislikes, and the normal datey things but the question still scared her. There was no other proof she needed, if he didn't already know then he suspected that those two were really part of the CCG. And as soon as they figured it out it wouldn't be long before the trail led back to her. Even if she was the pastor's daughter, there was no way they would risk keeping her alive in case she tried the same stunt a second time.

She pushed herself off the door and went to her room, pulling off articles of clothing as she went. She ended up in the bathroom, the hot water running, allowing the hot water to scald her hands. It was almost anchoring her to reality, this terrible reality she had dug for herself out of her own petty greed. How would her life be if she didn't strike those deals with Shinohara nearly a month ago? Would she feel sick, estranged from her parents, filthy? She shook her head and drew her hand back, the sudden assault of cold air making her shudder. Seconds later it was all drowned out as she pulled herself into the shower and let the water scald her entire body. All the day's filth, frustration, and annoyances was cleansed with watermelon body wash, and rushed down the drain with the grayish suds. When she was finished she changed into her pajamas and stepped out of the shower, using the towel to dry her hair, but stopped as she heard yelling outside. "I hate our neighbors."

She went to the living room and opened up the window, just for her eyes to widen as she caught sight of Juuzou and Shinohara fighting a ghoul. The ghoul's kagune were out and the long appendage was flicking back and forth in an attempt to keep the two fighters off of it. She couldn't tell much else about the ghoul thanks to the thick jacket covering it from head to toe and the draconian mask covering its face. Shinohara moved in with a large sword and tried to swipe at it, just for the ghoul to jump out of the way, its tail like kagune rushing out and smacking Juuzou as he attempted to counter. It landed on the balcony across from her and the kagune snapped out in front of him again. A flurry of silver sailed through the air, two of them embedding into the tail, while the other five managed to hit the glass door. The ghoul bent its legs and jumped, more knives sailing through the air and missing, before it landed on her balcony. Lily's eyes widened and she backed away, praying that the ghoul didn't notice her existence. Why had she been stupid enough to watch the fight again?

However God proved how much he didn't care, as the ghoul turned towards her. She continued to back away, ready to make a run for the kitchen and grab the knives, but instead of attacking her a knife lodged itself into the ghoul's shoulder. Its head snapped back to the fight and it jumped off the balcony and to the other side of the street again, just to scramble up the building in a retreat. After a few moments she heard banging and Juuzou managed to shimmy into her apartment, his clothes slick with blood. "Hey, Ri-chan! Isn't it weird that a binge eating ghoul was found around your apartment building?"

"I told you I found a ghoul."

He hummed. "But you didn't say it was a _binge eating_ ghoul."

She opened her mouth, but shut it when she remembered who she was talking to. It was pointless to argue with Juuzou, he was going to ignore whatever she had to say anyway. Shaking her head she went back to the window and looked down, Shinohara was looking around the area, probably doing investigator type things. "Don't you need to help, Shinohara-san?"

"Nope~!"

"You must be a terrible investigator."

He stared at her a few moments, head tilted to the side and a grin on his face. It looked scarier than usual thanks to the blood clinging to his face and clothes. He looked like some type of unholy demon spawn that needed to be punted back to hell. "All I need to do is kill ghouls. This one ran off even though it had the upper hand, I wonder why?"

"Maybe because you stabbed it?"

"No..." He came closer to her, shoving his face so close to her's she could smell the powder sugar coming off his tongue. She schooled her face into a blank expression, not allowing him the satisfaction in knowing that she was uncomfortable. "That ghoul is a binge eater, all they do is eat, and eat, and eat. They're stupid too, they wanna fight to eat and don't care how they do it. So why didn't it try to eat you?"He lifted a hand towards her face and grabbed her neck. She shrieked and tried to back away, but proved that he was stronger than her as she couldn't move an inch without him putting more pressure on her windpipe. "They know. And now that they know they're sending a binge eater to try and throw us off, but the boss said not to eat you. Isn't that weird, Ri-chan? Isn't it weird how you threw yourself into all this and how its been going to hell ever since?"

Her finger wrapped around Juuzou's wrist, digging her nails into him as hard as she possibly could. Blood welled to the surface in crimson drops that melded with his thread, but he didn't seem to react to the pain. "I-I-!"

"Hm~?"

Her vision began to waver as she stared at him. "T-they know!"

* * *

 **Translations** :

 **Honorifics: They're polite things you tag at the end of a name. -san, -chan, and -kun are some of the more common.**

 **Shrines: Temples for the Shinto gods. Often you give five Yen and say a prayer for luck and stuff like that.**

* * *

 **Review Replies:**

 **AlwaysRunning9: Thanks, though personally I didn't think that part was cute. Then again, he thought her breaking was cute so...I'm glad you like the plot, which thickens in this new chapter.**


	12. File 11

**A/N: Hello everyone! I know I left the last chapter on a cliffhanger, so I was determined to update a little early as a result. So I hope you enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

Lily let her body hit the floor the minute she was free from Juuzou's grasp, her eyes wide and mouth open as she took several shaky breaths. Each breath made her throat burn, a cough threatening to slip through if she wasn't careful. She looked up at the boy and wasn't surprised to see him unconcerned about the result of his actions. She remembered those 'heart to heart' talks her father had with her when she started dating at fourteen. He said that if any man raised his hand against her that she should back out of the relationship. This may not be dating, but their business 'relationship' was becoming too dangerous for her. If it wasn't ghouls trying to kill her it was the person she was supposed to rely on for support. She found and scrounged for information while he made sure that the ghouls didn't try to eat her while her back was turned. She had no training for any of this, but she was doing it anyway, and each time coming out worse for wear. Her eyes widened and her head jerked up, staring directly into Juuzou's peculiar red eyes that seemed to lack yet show emotion at the same time. The understanding was there, right on the tip of her tongue, and it made a red hot fire burn inside her. She gripped her night dress as she dragged herself off the floor, ignoring the survival instinct in her head that was telling her to just let it go.

Lily was a coward. She'd happily admit it to anyone that bothered to ask. People who played hero usually died, and those who didn't know when to quit the game didn't get the prize at the end. She always made sure to keep those two thoughts in her mind whenever she did anything. Her life was always lived in a reclusive balance that almost assured victory due to this mind set. She had made friends in a foreign country, avoided ghouls, was considered a 'good' child, and a grade A student. No one doubted her promises, no one saw her as a liar, and everyone was assured that her work would be done to the best of her ability. It had taken hard work to gain such a reputation, and she valued it beyond almost all else. Heck, it was the reason why this mission hadn't gone up in smoke yet! If her parents doubted her, then they would have been suspicious of Juuzou that first time he came through the window. She was staking everything on this mission and this boy...

 _He didn't respect her._

That was why he barged into her life and took advantage of her. Constantly hurting her, laughing, picking, insulting! Lily grit her teeth and lashed out, her fist making contact with the boy's nose. The skin on skin contact felt amazing, it put her on a high that rivaled an orgasm, and made her happier than when she scored perfectly on a test. The boy barely moved from the force of her punch, his nose wasn't even bleeding, but his eyes were wide as he stared at her.

A smirk curled on his lips. "Too bad Ri-chan, I can't feel pain~." Her eyes narrowed and she moved to punch him again, but his hand came up and caught her fist easily. "Careful Ri-chan, you don't want me to break you. Shinohara-san wouldn't like that very much."

"Fuck him!" She hissed. "Fuck him, you, and the ghouls! I've put myself on the line for something I don't believe in, I've nearly gotten eaten, and now you think that you can just dominate me because you're stronger? You're no different than the shit you're hunting-!"

Juuzou added pressure to her hand, a shot of pain going through her hand and up her arm. She whimpered as her body sagged a bit, doing its best to get away from the sudden burst of pain. The smirk was replaced by a smile, if she didn't know any better she would have thought he was happy about something. "Ri-chan, I just said I didn't want to break you, but you're making it _very_ difficult not to."

"Resorting to violence?" She said. "Just like a ghoul."

Juuzou took her arm and twisted it, she arched her back to try and balance the pain, but he yanked her close pinning her fist to her back. With his free hand he reached up and began choking her again. She wriggled her body against him, the flashes of pain going completely ignored as fight or flight kicked in. This wasn't the same as last time, there was far more pressure in his hands and he wasn't holding back any of it. In seconds her vision began dotting black and breathing became nearly impossible. This boy was stronger than her, faster, and he couldn't feel pain so a normal fight wasn't in her favor. The only thing that was going to get her out of this was begging or surprising him. Using her free hand she snaked it backwards and felt along Juuzou's shirt, his hand tightening on her wrist in response, when she felt the rough fabric of his pants she dove her hand in. The boy jerked, clearly feeling what she did, and let go of her neck and grabbed at her wrist. She had barely touched him when he managed to drag her hand out and pin that behind her as well.

"I didn't think you could be so dirty, Ri-chan." His tone was mocking as usual and his grip had let up, Lily didn't know if she should be thankful or afraid. "Were you that desperate to get away from me?"

She opened her mouth, but stopped when the door to the apartment opened. She jerked her head, and nearly gave a sigh of relief when she saw Shinohara standing in the doorway. He looked the two of them over before addressing Juuzou. "The ghoul didn't leave anything behind. This one either knows that we're onto it, or is far more cautious than most binge eaters."

Juuzou pushed Lily away. "Ri-chan said that the church knows what we're doing."

"Is that true?"

Lily shrugged. "I'm not sure, but from the conversation I had with Tomoyama, he was pretty suspicious about you guys."

Shinohara sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Well this means we'll have to bump up the time table then. Tomorrow I need you in my office at the CCG, dress professionally and be ready to work."

"Alright, I'll come by right after class."

"Good, and Lily-san," He gestured to her neck. "you should cover that up."

* * *

Lily held up a piece of steamed shrimp up to the sun. Her and Sana were sitting on on the roof, their lunches bentos out and cans of ice cold soda sitting next to them. Sana had dragged her outside and insisted on eating on the roof since she felt 'restless' after taking her English exam. "You know, sometimes I wonder if your father is bribing me with food."

"He is." Sana said, leaning against the warm brick wall. "He keeps complaining about how I should try harder in school, and how you won't be around forever, but I guess he just doesn't realize my genius."

"In what?"

Sana grabbed her book bag and opened it up, a few pens, some paper, and a light novel fell out of it. Giving a small cheer she dragged out a thick notepad and handed it to Lily. The page was decorated with a black coffin that had a small child in it, she was surrounded with white lilies and the only bit of color inside the coffin was the red heart that the girl was holding. It was a macabre image that looked like it belonged in the horror magazines that she was subscribed to, with the same amount of detail and superb coloring. "Is this for your manga?"

Sana gently took the notepad. "Yeah, I figured I might as well get started on it now so I can submit it for the annual amateur contest this winter. If I submit something good I might prove to my Dad that I can actually do something with my life that doesn't involve becoming a CCG investigator like him."

"Maybe you should go to work with him sometime?" Lily said. "If you do then you'll be able to get him to calm down about it."

The girl grunted and picked up her soda. "Nah, I like messing with him. Anyway, I heard that you're gonna be going to work at the 11th Ward Branch Office."

"How-?"

"Dad." Sana gave a dramatic sigh and placed her soda can over her heart."Once you start the CCG then you'll end up applying for the academy and leaving me. Or even worse marry one of those sexy investigators and run off to a nice apartment and have a bunch of kids, once again without me. No matter what you do you'll be trapped by that evil institution!"

"It's just a job Sana," She said. "I'm organizing paperwork and paying off my new phone."

"You say that now," Sana hissed. "but once you walk into that infirmary and see those muscles, you'll be there forever."

Lily just rolled her eyes. "You're stupid."

"And you're a slut."

"Do you want me to help you study?"

"Sorry..."

Lily sighed and shut her bento box, staring at the cutesy designs printed over the cheap plastic. The CCG was a very reputable institution, it was one of the main reasons why she even put herself on this god forsaken mission, but being locked into it as a permanent job? It payed decently enough, she would be a respected part of the community, she would no doubt have plenty of benefits that most normal people only dreamed of, and she would be well protected with her own skills. However, it was dangerous. Even on the days where you pretended to be a civilian you'd end up being a target by ghouls, you'd become paranoid, injured, and there was little doubt that you would have to leave the house. She curled her arms around her waist and nuzzled her nose into her jacket. No, getting 'locked down' into a CCG job sounded too dangerous to even consider. Sitting in the office and doing some paperwork was more than exciting enough for her, and as far as her parents were concerned, an accomplishment. Granted they didn't know that it was for the CCG, but they thought she was doing so well since her first job was in an office in another ward.

As for marrying a CCG investigator...Lily wasn't even sure if she _wanted_ to get married. Her parents were a decent display of marriage, they went out all the time, they cared about each other, and they had a decent sex life if the squeaking from their room meant anything. But all of it seemed so...Well, she wasn't sure what to call it. Fake was too harsh a word, while deliberate didn't describe it properly. They had been this way for as long as she could remember, and considering her earliest memory wasn't the best, there was probably a reason for that. She didn't want to lock herself into a marriage full of grief, and one with a CCG officer almost seemed like a requirement.

The bell startled her out of her thoughts, and her demeanor slipped back into her over eagerness to study. "Okay, let's go Sana."

"But Lily-chan!" Sana sighed as Lily hauled her up, muttering something about how cruel she was to make her use effort.

* * *

Lily had brought a change of clothes to school that she could wear to work. It was nothing fancy and, to be honest, similar to what she would usually wear. Stockings, a skirt, a high neck blouse, and some heals. She tugged on her skirt for the tenth time since she entered the elevator and looked at the floor, doing her best not to stare at the investigators surrounding her. All of them were at least six years older than her, had their iconic briefcases, and were surprised by her intrusion when she had narrowly missed the elevator. It wasn't that she was cowed by these people, but more that she was trying not to look any more suspicious than she probably did. She had heard horror stories that investigators would kill a human just so long as they were suspicious looking, and seeing how one of the few investigators she associated with tried to kill her last night, she wasn't willing to test that theory.

Speaking of Juuzou, her fingers touched her neck at the thought of him, anger bubbling up inside her as she thought about what she did. Yes, she was wrong for egging him on, but there was no way that she honestly deserved the lack of respect that she got out of him. Most times she felt like a lesser being around him, like he was judging her based off of nothing. It seemed childish to want him to respect her, but just his lack of respect felt almost like a challenge to everything that she was as a human being. Being seen as lesser in the fact that he thought of her as below human had set off her anger, and that had ended up clouding her judgment and resulting in her bruises. She gripped her blouse's collar and took a deep breath in an effort to calm herself, she didn't want to make Shinohara look bad on her first day of work.

The elevator finally stopped on her floor and she got out, happy to finally be away from so many people, and wandered down the hall. There weren't that many people on this floor. The few people that went by didn't even pay her a glance as they hurried along, stacks of papers in their arms. When she finally got to Shinohara's office she knocked on the door. There was a crash before Juuzou ripped the door open, a grin on his face. "Shinohara-san, Ri-chan finally got here!"

"Then let her in, don't stand in front of the door."

Juuzou stepped aside and Lily walked into the room. It was the same as ever, the only difference was that there was paperwork all over the desk and the spinning chair was knocked over. Lily smoothed out her skirt before bowing politely. "Thank you again, Shinohara-san, for giving me this job."

"Don't go thanking me yet." Lily pulled herself out of the bow as Shinohara walked over to her, a thick folder in his hand. "Take a look at this."

She took the file and opened it. Inside was the picture of a dark haired woman with pretty brown eyes, there was a small cut under her left eye and her nose looked too big for her small face. Lily's eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the picture, a light tugging on her brain bringing her attention to that scar. "Tachibana Nana, 32 years old, has two children Hinata and Arisu Tachibana, was married but became a widow after husband died in a car accident, became an alcoholic and abusive to her children, has a deep seated guilt over her husband's death, refuses to take part in church activities-"

She flinched when she felt someone touching her shoulder, pulling her out of the hazy state she found herself in. "Are you alright, Lily-san?"

"...I think so," She handed the folder back. "I used to see her all the time when her husband was alive, but she basically quit the church after he died. Did she do anything?"

"We haven't found enough evidence but-"

"She was eating humans." Juuzou said. "Maybe she was sacrificing virgins!"

* * *

 **Review Response:**

 **AlwaysRunning9: Now that I think about it, he is kinda like Tsukiyama, but I prefer Tsukiyama over Tomoyama. Tomoyama is more than just a creep...Of course things are getting bad for her, nothing else could be expected from our little traitor.**

 **Guest: Here's the next chapter. I'm sorry for leaving it as a such a cliff hanger, but I thought it was fun. ^_-**

 **Tulip: I've just started :Re, and I think it might...If Lily doesn't die. Pretend? I'm not sure what you mean by that, but I'm glad you see her as 'human'. It was important to me that her character development was sound since a lot of the time Ocs seem to over exaggerate their emotions or come across annoying instead of sympathetic.**


	13. File 12

**A/N: This chapter could be called character development. It also had a ton of dialogue, which I suck at writing if you haven't noticed. Anyway, I hope you can enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Tachibana Nana had changed since she entered her cell almost a week ago. Her skin had become pale, there were dark circles under her eyes, and her dark hair looked like stringy pieces of pasta. She looked so different from the quiet yet beautiful woman that used to come to church with her whiny children every Sunday.

"Are you sure I should be doing this?" Lily said. "I mean, won't she realize something's wrong if I'm asking her a bunch of questions?"

Shinohara put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about that, if everything goes according to plan, then she'll think that you heard about her arrest on television and are only coming in to check on her."

Lily blanched at the statement. "W-wait, you want me to lie? I suck at lying, she'll see right through me! Wouldn't it make more sense to tell the truth, I mean she's locked up in here and can't contact anyone."

"Don't worry about that." He said. "Just relax and question her. If she get's suspicious we'll pull you out, but for now just ask a few harmless questions."

Lily crossed her arms over her chest and dipped her head to bury her face into her jacket, but remembered that she wasn't wearing one. Why were they relying on her for such an important task, didn't they train their investigators to question people? Then again, they were probably trying to exploit a feeling of trust that Nana would have towards her. As far as that woman knew, she was the daughter of the pastor, and had no intentions of destroying the church form within. It was actually a good strategy, and would probably succeed if Lily was any good at lying.

Shinohara slid a card key over a slider, and the door opened with a low click. Lily took a deep breath and entered the small room, and went over to the small metal table in the middle of the room. Nana was already sitting there, her brown eyes staring at her with a dead look that disturbed her. Lily sat across from her and gave a shaky smile. "Hello, Tachibana-san. My father sent me to come see you, um, he wanted to come himself but he wasn't able to make it. Work and stuff..."

"..."

Lily wanted to get up and call it quits. Lying was not her specialty, she was going to end up blowing their cover. Really, why-Her thought process stopped as she mulled over her train of thought. Why? That was what always fueled any of her mind rants, why would person A do X, or why would person A want X. Questioning a person's motives was all part of her lifestyle, and hadn't lead her astray. Maybe she should phrase her questions in a way that allowed her to question motives, and actually try to understand the twisted thought process that had lead Nana to eating other humans. After all, Nana was human and had no business eating humans hearts and livers. Clearly something happened between the time she saw her last and now, something that had caused this habit.

Lily relaxed her body and spoke. "Tachibana-san, how is your family?"

The woman looked up, her eyes sunken into her face and red. "The CCG took my kids to their grandmother's house in Osaka. That stupid bitch is probably telling them all the things I did when I was younger, making them hate me like she does."

"Your mother hates you?"

"...A bit."

The two sat in silence for a few moments before Lily began again. "My Dad and I aren't that close either. He's always doing things for the church and leaving my Mom and I behind. But if he didn't, he wouldn't have been able to help you when Kaito-san died."

Nana bit her lip, her eyes darted to the window before looking at Lily again. "You father helped me a lot. He told me to stop trying to live up to my mom's expectations, to just let go and be happy, even though..." She gave a shaky breath. "even though Kaito is gone. Moving on seemed so hard back then, but it got easier thanks to your father. Drowning in our sins only makes us miserable, that's why we have to do something with ourselves. Being apart of the angel's work helped me let go of everything, it was exhilarating."

"So you see my Dad even though you don't come to church?"

"During the adult meetings." She explained. "You're a bit young for those, you'll probably get to come when you're a bit older."

A loud buzz came from the door and Shinohara stepped in. Nana seemed to shrink as the investigator came closer, she wondered what they did to her before now. Lily pushed her chair back, getting up from the low table. "I'll tell my father you're doing well, Tachibana-san."

Nana's face paled and she reached out, grabbing onto one of Lily's hands. "Don't say a word to him. I already disappointed him enough, but please don't tell him that about me."

"Why?"

Nana stared at the investigator, before they went back to Lily, the fear smoldering and almost making her back away. "Just don't say a word, please Lily-chan."

"..." Shinohara cleared his throat, hinting at their time block. Lily nodded and began to walk back to the door. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

* * *

Lily had always thought that the life of a CCG investigator would be cool, dangerous, and on the edge. From all the ultra violent movies that came out featuring them, and the documentaries, she thought that the paperwork would lead her down a trail of exciting adventures that belonged in a novel. Instead she found a bunch of papers that basically explained what was done, how much damage was done, and whether or not they actually managed to find a ghoul. Most of the papers had to be organized into whether or not a mission was a success, and most of the time they weren't. It was almost always a bunch of sleuthing just to find a dead end, or for the ghoul to get away. She placed another paper onto the ever growing pile, a yawn escaping her lips as she did. It had been an hour since she questioned Nana, and Shinohara and Juuzou had gone off to a meeting to discuss their new finds. Shinohara had been happy about the news, and had said that her tacit had did well in getting results. Lily didn't think she did anything special, she had just laid out her thoughts and Nana had happily went down them with her. She may have got Nana to talk, but all it did was lead them down a chaotic road. Her father was always busy with something, finding out about these 'adult' meetings would hard. She guessed that meant she would need to raid his room or computer, but she didn't think her father would have 'secret meeting with ghouls at 6 PM' on his planner.

She let another yawn escape her lips and she leaned back into the chair. Lily and her father didn't have the best relationship, that's what she had told Nana, and that was the truth. But knowing what she did now, did he push her away so that she wouldn't get hurt? He was conducting human sacrifices, or at least promoting cannibalism, if she had known that before meeting Shinohara she would be the one getting questioned. She wondered if her mother knew anything about what was going on, and if she would be dragged in for questioning. She would actually be a little guilty about that, her mother always tried to form a relationship with Lily, even when she was an alcoholic a few years ago.

Now that she was thinking about it, she hadn't taken time to think so much on how her life would be affected if the CCG managed to crack down on this case. Well she had, but not in the way that her family dynamic would be ruptured. She had always taken advantage of the fact that her family was there, and that they always had a vested interest in where she was and what she was doing. If they were to suddenly disappear without warning...She took in a sharp breath, nothing bad was going to happen. More than likely she'd be deported back to Mississippi, where she would live with her grandmother and aunts until she was 18. Her parents would probably go to prison for life in the US, and she would go visit them on Christmas and their birthdays.

"Ri-chan!" Lily's eyes opened and she sat up, eyeing Juuzou who had slammed the door open. His eyes were wide and he had a snack bar in his hand, clearly something must have gone right."Guess what, we're going to be doing recon on the church this week, and you're coming with us!"

"Huh?"

Shinohara shut the door behind him and went to his desk, looking over the piles she had made. "The higher ups want you on board so you can identify anyone that seems familiar. You won't have to engage anyone, and you'll be kept out of the way if our cover was blown."

"When do you want this to happen though?" She asked. "We have no idea when these 'adult' meetings go on. Besides, wouldn't you have caught something with the camera feed that I gave you?"

"That feed is extremely grainy, and we haven't been able to intercept the feed from the other cameras." Shinohara said. "This is the easiest way to get it done, and probably the most idiot proof as well."

Lily didn't see it that way, but decided against saying so. "Then when does this happen?"

"We estimate that the meetings are being held during the week, all of the murders we found were called in on Thursdays. So between Thursday morning and Wednesday is when the murders happen. I'll pick you up from school Wednesday, but you'll need an excuse not to be home that night."

Her not being at home was suspicious, anything she said would tip her parents off, so she guessed she may as well make it something they wanted to hear. "I could say I'm staying over at Juuzou's."

Said boy stopped picking at his stitches. The entire time he had been quiet, so she thought he was ignoring them and waiting for Lily to give him back his spinning chair, or was too absorbed in her snack to care. "Eh, wouldn't they be suspicious?"

"My parents aren't going to believe I'm actually going out of my way to leave the house out of my own free will." Lily said. "I might as well tell them something they want to hear, and be done with it."

"Why would they want to hear that you're at my house?"

Lily just shrugged, she had no intentions of telling him that her parents thought of him as good boyfriend material. That would cause even more disruptions in her life, and she didn't want anymore of those. Also, she didn't want to disrupt their already uneasy relationship. She didn't even want to think about what would happen if he thought that she liked him, they were already at the point where they wanted to kill each other, and only one of them actually had the ability to make that happen. "You don't mind if I stay with you, do you? It'd be weird if I asked my parents for a large sum of money if I'm supposed to be hanging out with a friend."

"Will you cook?"

"Will you have stuff for me to cook?"

Juuzou nodded. "But you'll have to tell me what to buy, I never cook. Well, I did try once, but I almost burnt down Shinohara-san's kitchen. You should have seen his wife's face, she looked like she swallowed a puffer fish! Shinohara-san made me promise that I wouldn't try to cook again after that."

"I think he saved hundreds of lives with that promise."

A low laugh from Shinohara grabbed both of their attentions. "Ne, what is it Shinohara-san?"

The man just shook his head. "It's nothing, I just didn't expect for you two to get along after your fight yesterday."

Lily just rolled her eyes and continued to work, listening to Juuzou question Shinohara about what he meant, and the older man denying he meant anything by it.

* * *

It was official: Lily really did need to get out more. When she told her parents that she was staying with Juuzou on Wednesday, her mother had nearly made her go deaf with her squealing.

"Awe, I'm so glad you have a new boyfriend, Lily!"

"He's not my boyfriend."

Her mother ignored her, instead pawing at her husband's arm, her food forgotten. "Isn't it nice, Baby? I thought she was going to die a nun after Yuki died. Maybe it was a good thing she went on that date with Tomoyama-sama after all."

Her father sighed and put down his fork. While her mother was more accepting of her random escapades, her father was imbued with a bit more common sense, something that she was both thankful for and cursing. "Lily, you can't stay the night with some boy. I'm glad that you're moving on from Yukimura, but shacking up with someone isn't the best way to go about it."

"I'm staying with Shinoahra, Juuzou, and Shinohara's wife. I doubt we'll be able to get into trouble with adults there."

"I understand that but-"

"Baby," Lily's mother said. "you should know our daughter wouldn't do anything like that. She has more self control than we did, besides it's not often she tries to go out on her own."

"I know, that's why I'm concerned." Lily almost felt her heart stop at his words. "Lately you've been running all over Tokyo, and I'm glad you're finally coming out of your shell, but I'm still concerned about what you've been doing. Tomoyama-sama went to that office that you work at and you weren't there, he said they hadn't even heard of you."

Her mother frowned, messing up her pretty features. "Is that true, Lily?"

Lily took a deep breath and stared at her plate, stirring the food around for a moment. She couldn't just lie to her parents and tell them that she had left before Tomoyama had gotten there, but at the same time she couldn't just lead them down a path with their own conclusions like she had done to Nana. If she were her parents she would wonder why their daughter, who was usually a good girl, had decided to lie to them about something as important as her job. Just a brief look at her mother and she could see disappointment, but a look from her father showed a guarded expression. She couldn't tell if he was disappointed or had expected her to not have a job, or at least to lie about it. If she were her parents, she would expect for her to have lied about having a job, and instead stayed at the school studying. Based mostly for a lack of wanting to deal with people, and taking a great amount of time and care into her studies. That lie sounded conceivable, and something that she would actually...do if she didn't have to work with the CCG.

"I was at school." Lily said, looking up from her plate. "I haven't gotten a job, but I didn't want to seem irresponsible and like a brat. B-but, I really will be with Juuzou at his family's house on Wednesday."

Her father sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. She guessed she had spared him the 'teenage angst' for the last sixteen years, and now he was finally getting a heavy dose full of the stuff. "I'm sorry Lily, but I can't let you go to your friend's house in the light of this situation. You lied about where you were, and if you even had a job when I asked you to go find one. That was not only irresponsible but unsafe as well, what if you were kidnapped or killed? Do you have any idea how we would feel about that?"

She flinched at his words, but kept her blank expression in place. "I'm sorry."

Her mother abruptly stood up, the chair making a loud screeching noise across the floor, before she left the room. Her father quickly got up and followed her, calling her name in a plaintive tone. Lily remained at the table, stirring her food around on the plate and not saying anything. When her wrist finally got tired she let her fork drop with a clatter and leaned back in her chair, staring at the low ceiling. She could hear her parents arguing in the next room, her neighbors listening to some type of dark techno, and there was a pounding pain behind her eyes. A hand slipped into her skirt pocket and clutched her wallet. "Am I really doing the right thing?"

* * *

 **Review Replies:**

 **AlwaysRunning9: Yup, but it failed. Not very surprising since he's stronger than her.**


	14. File 13

**A/N: It's almost midnight, so I didn't miss the due date for this chapter!**

* * *

The next two days was rather chaotic. Lily spent her time putting in applications for a job she wouldn't have time for, spent time at the CCG filing papers, and thinking of a way to sneak out of the house on Wednesday. She was so busy she could barely study, and spent almost every spare moment cramming in study time. Sana had mentioned her worry, even going as far as to invite her to a slumber party, but Lily had quickly declined. She didn't think she had the mental capacity to do anything that made her uncomfortable at the moment. She felt uncharacteristically stretched, as if one move would cause her to break beyond repair. At first she thought it was just stress, thanks to her usual life being completely destroyed, but now she was beginning to think otherwise. Sleep wasn't coming to her the way it used to, she was constantly checking to see if her parents were watching her, and she was almost always nauseous. All very prominent signs of anxiety. Next depression would be knocking at her door, eager to join the culmination of unwanted emotions.

She reached out and grabbed her phone off her night stand and clicked it on, staring at the colorful screen. "It's due day."

She forced herself up and busied herself getting ready, throwing on her clothes, and quickly styling her hair into its usual buns. When she was all ready she grabbed her phone and typed out a quick message to Shinohara. Lily wasn't going to the school, instead she would be picked up two blocks down from it by Shinohara. After that she would hang around with the CCG duo until it was time for school to end. She would then go home, trick her mother into thinking she was staying home, and sneak out the house again. It was far from a fool proof plan, but as long as she didn't at strange Juuzou insisted that it would work. She left her bedroom, her bag over her shoulder as she went into her living room. Her father was, surprisingly, at the table and eating breakfast with her mother.

"Morning."

Her father looked up from his plate and waved his piece of buttered toast at her. "Good morning, did you sleep well?"

Lily kissed his forehead and grunted an affirmative before doing the same process with her mother. She then went to the kitchen and piled food onto her plate, she didn't think Shinohara would let her break for lunch, so she was going to stuff herself with as much food as she could. She went back to the living room and sat on the floor, next to her mother's legs. The TV was on the news, and some officials were discussing the rise in ghoul victims within their ward. She guessed it was the work of that binge eater that Shinohara and Juuzou were running after.

"The work of an arc-angel." Her father said, catching Lily's attention. "Our ward is utterly infested with sinners."

"It's such a pity though," Her mother said. "those poor families that can't even bury their loved ones." She put a hand on Lily's head and began to pet her like one would a cat. "Having nothing to put in the ground or keep in an urn is depressing."

"I know, but those people deserved it. Think of how many murderers, thugs, liars, and rapists," He spat the last word. "manage to get away with their sins? If the justice of this world can't make things better, then the brutal punishment of the Lord is what suits them."

"Let's not talk about this anymore." Her mother tapped her head, Lily grunted in acknowledgment but didn't stop eating. "You filled your plate up too much, you're going to gain weight Lily."

"Let her eat, Clair." Her father leaned over the table and gave her his bacon. "You know how you were at her age. You always complained about your mother telling you to stop eating so much, and structuring exactly what you ate."

"Don't you have work?"

Lily shoved the last piece of bacon into her mouth before standing up. "I've got to go to school, I promised Sana I'd help her cram for a quiz today."

"Lily," She stopped and turned back to her father. "I expect you to look for jobs again today."

Once again Lily muttered an affirmative before going to the sink and putting her dish away. She turned on the water and waited a few seconds. When no one called for her she pulled out her phone and sent a quick message to Shinohara. When the 'message sent' icon was displayed, she pocketed her phone and headed out the door, loudly calling out her departure before shutting the door behind her.

* * *

Lily slid into the backseat of the black car. She had driven with Shinohara before, but never for an all day affair. She pressed her legs together and curled her arms around her chest, trying to get comfortable in the cramped space.

"Thank you for coming," Shinohara said. "when you sent that message I didn't think you'd show up."

"I was just running late," She said. "it happens to the best of us." When Shinohara pulled away from the curb, Lily leaned back in the chair, some of the stress leaving her body. "So what are we doing?"

Juuzou twisted around in his chair, wrapping his arms around the chair and leaning forward. "We're going by the church."

"Isn't that an obvious place for a meetup spot?"

Juuzou nodded. "But it's also the place that most people can meet up at, before going to another location. The church is easy to find, and there isn't a lot of them, so you can't go to the wrong destination. Oh, and you don't look that suspicious if twenty people all meet up."

It always surprised Lily when Juuzou said something intelligent, she almost felt ashamed about it, but that feeling quickly disappeared when he threw something at her. She merely saw a flash of pink before she felt a sharp pain on her forehead and something thump onto her lap. Rubbing her forehead she picked up the small item and held it up. "Candy?"

"Don't you like sweets?"

"Yeah." She opened up the packet and popped it into her mouth.

The boy turned back around and sat properly in his seat. Lily wondered what his sudden change in attitude was. Only a few days ago he wanted her dead, and now he was acting as if the whole thing didn't happen. Juuzou was almost always eating something, and not once had he offered to give her a lick. She glanced over to Shinohara, who was casually talking to the hyperactive boy. He probably had something to do with it, maybe telling him to be somewhat civil towards her on this mission. Not that she intended to have the same courtesy, she wasn't prepared to forgive him just because they had to play nice. Juuzou had personally put her in danger, and even though she was relying on him that night, she had no intention of playing nice about it. On top of that, she wanted to be clear on their relationship. They didn't use very formal speech ***** with each other, and she cooked for him, she wanted to make it clear they weren't friends. Having a connection to the CCG would be nice in the future, but Shinohara was the less explosive of the two, and that immediately made him a better candidate.

Lily remained silent the rest of the way to the church. Juuzou would occasionally chatter about something, or Shinohara would turn up the radio, but she never joined in their bubble. When they drove up to the church Juuzou shut up mid-sentence and Shinohara turned the radio off. The air in the car shifted, and Lily felt like she was witnessing the metamorphosis of a butterfly. No longer were they the two, arguably sociable, investigators that she spent too much of her time with. Now they were men on the job, ready to take down a ghoul or any cannibals that wondered out of the church.

Lily scanned the narrow driveway that sat outside the church. There were no cars there yet, but she guessed her father had already came since the gate surrounding the church's property was open. Lily slipped her phone out of her pocket and furrowed her eyebrows when she got a good look at the time. It was nearly nine in the morning, and if she knew anything about Japan, most everyone capable of breathing was working or taking care of children. The church was really open during the day just for show, and to allow her father to organize papers or prepare his sermon. On Fridays he usually went to the hospital and read stories to the kids, but other than that his day schedule was usually empty unless one of the older members were sick or needed a hand with some chores.

"My Dad's already here." She said. "Do you have any prime suspects that'll attend this 'adult meeting'?"

"Not as of yet," Shinohara admitted. "but we hope that changes today."

Lily looked out the window again, the cars speeding by as everyone hurried about their day. "Hey, my Dad said something weird this morning." She pulled out her phone again and clicked onto the news section, bringing up the story on the binge eater. "He called the binge eater an arc angel. He said that it was because the eleventh ward is full of sinners that it's attacking."

Shinohara took her phone and glanced over the story before giving it back. "Does your father know who the binge eater is, then?"

"I don't know," She said, staring at her phone. "but I think I know. In the church there's always been three ghouls, and one of them is called the 'Arc-Angel'. Tsukada doesn't come to the church very often, but he was at the house recently. Do you think he's the one who's playing the binge eater?"

"Maybe." His gaze shifted back to the church. "We'll have to see where this investigation leads. I'll call the office in a bit and see if they can gather up any information on Tsukada."

"So Ri-chan did know the binge eater." Lily looked away from the window to glare at Juuzou. "I wonder what else you know."

"It's only a guess." She deadpanned. "If I did know, I'd tell you guys so you could leave me alone."

Juuzou twisted around in his chair again and leered at her from above. "But why didn't you tell anyone that a ghoul came to visit you. That's very suspicious, Ri-chan~."

Lily's eyes narrowed and she opened a mouth to retort, but Shinohara cleared his throat, making both of them stop. "Look, we have a few hours we'll be sitting here, let's try not to kill each other so early on, alright?"

"Fine." Lily moved to the other side of the car, and pressed her knees into the back of the driver's seat.

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

By the middle of the afternoon Lily was nodding off to sleep. The semi-warm late February sun streamed in through the window, her heavy breakfast had digested, and the boredom was finally getting to her. She snuggled deeper into her jacket and let out a big breath, eyes fluttering shut for a second. No wonder you had those shows where the cops drank gallons of coffee, staying awake while watching nothing was pretty boring. She'd dealt with long math equations that were more entertaining and engaging than the church. A sharp pain on her forehead and a low ping woke her up, she glared at the white haired culprit who was busy playing with the stitches under his lip. Lily slid down in her seat, rather unladylike, and grabbed a green wrapped loli off the floor. When she pushed herself up again, she caught a glance of two people entering the church's gates. "Hey-!"

"I see them." Shinohara took out a pair of binoculars and looked into them. "Looks like that young couple."

"Kitamuras." Lily said, popping the wrapper off the loli and giving it a tentative lick. A burst of sour lime wriggled through her mouth and made her lips scrunch up. "Sakura and Shinji. Tokyo natives that are cousins."

Over the next half hour more people began coming to the church, but none of them went inside, instead they stood around the outside of it. As the people poured in, Lily would give facts about them, things that sounded more like salacious gossip than anything to work with. By four o'clock, over thirty people were crowded in the small parking space. Some people had brought cars, while others had walked up, clearly coming from a bus or train. Her father eventually came out, a hat on his head and his coat on. They milled about a bit longer before her father went over to a station wagon and slipped into the driver's seat. Everyone else began to follow, piling up in cars and carpooling to their destination. Her father's group pulled out first, and the other cars began to follow behind him at a moderate pace.

Shinohara started the car. "Alright, both of you buckle up."

Lily did as she was instructed, while Juuzou seemed to sputter back to life. "Where do you think they'll go, Shinohara-san? Can we fight them? I brought plenty of knives, maybe I'll finally get a quinque!"

Half way down the road the cars split up on separate paths. Shinohara followed the one that her father was driving, making sure to keep at least two cars behind. By now Lily had woken up a bit, sitting up properly and even leaning forward so she could see better. They began going past the shopping plazas and into the neighborhoods, just to loop back around and head towards more shopping plazas. The eleventh ward was pretty large, but she hadn't realized how many twists and turns there were until now. "Where do you think he's going?"

"Each of the murders had happened in a public place, as if it was mean to cause a scene." Shinohara said. "So I'm not entire sure where they could be going. So far we've found bodies in a barber shop, a nail salon, a cafe, a few sushi shops, a book store, and more recently a classroom."

Lily's lips became a firm line at the last one. It made sense to kill someone and leave the body in a classroom, it was guaranteed to get you attention, but why on earth would her father do it? He had his own child, he knew what she would think if she found a body by accident, it was bound to leave her traumatized. Unless that's what he wanted to do? What better way to bring people to faith than to instill fear, especially in impressionable young children, and adults that wanted nothing more than to keep their children safe. In a world where humans had only the CCG for protection, anyone thinking that a ghoul was close to their children would do anything to either get rid of the ghouls, or get on their good sides so as not to attack their precious children. Her stomach knotted at the thought and she gripped her skirt. Her father was playing a dangerous game. Before she only wanted her father stopped for her own ambitions, but now it seemed like he needed to be stopped, the man was going utterly insane.

The car suddenly jerked to a stop. Lily peered out the window again, finding them in the middle of a strip mall. There was a few clothing boutiques, a flower shop, and a toy store. A few of the stores were closed, but for the most part everyone was busy and open for business. Her father slipped out of his car and causally walked with the other occupants of his car. It almost looked like a family going out and enjoying themselves in the late afternoon, maybe even picking up ingredients for dinner. However they took a sharp turn and went up to the toy store, and an elderly lady unlocked the door for them.

"Shinohara-san..."

Shinohara unbuckled his seat belt. "We're going to go check it out, you go straight home, understand."

Lily nodded, already halfway out the car as soon as he gave the command. "Alright, do you want me to come back?"

He shook his head. "No, we're going to meet up at Juuzou's house and review the facts. Don't be there later than eight o'clock, alright?"

Lily nodded before easing out the car and running down the road. She could feel the weight of the entire day on her shoulders, and she almost felt like she had met someone new for the first time. She knew her father was messed up in the head, how else did you justify worshiping ghouls, but this was just sickening. It was like those cheesy shows that had someone tailing your partner, just to see if they were actually cheating with on you or not. What else was her father hiding from her? She maneuvered onto a crowded street and began to slow down, her chest hurting from doing an unfamiliar exercise. By the time this was said and done, would she even want to call this person her father?

She dug her hand into her pocket and pulled out her wallet, counting out the few bills in it. She had just enough money to get a taxi and get to her house in enough time that her mother wouldn't be suspicious. She waved a hand around with one hand, and began typing out her mother's number with another, preparing herself to ease into her lie.

* * *

 **Review Replies:**

 **AlwaysRunning9:** She's books smart, anything outside of that and she's an idiot. I'm glad you like her though.

 **Tamilia** : I have no idea as to why your review didn't show up when I was writing the 13th chapter, I'm so sorry I didn't reply to your review. I'm glad you like the story idea and the characters! I also hope you enjoy this new update.

* * *

 **Translations:**

 **Formal Speech:** Lily is referring to the fact that neither of them use proper speech. A lot of words and phrases have a different way you would speak them, if you were speaking politely or casually. She also never refers to Juuzou as 'Suzuya-san', 'Juuzou-san', or even Suzuya. She went straight for his first name and never adds and honorific, that would mean that you're very comfortable with the person. Likewise, Juuzou always refers to her as Ri-chan, a childish nickname that is by no means professional. If you were to listen to them then, you'd think they were good friends.


	15. File 14

**A/N: I'm updating a day early, because there's a TON to go over for this sequence of the story. It's basically a matter of hours boiled down in this chapter and the next chapter, and I know you guys want to know what happens next.**

* * *

Lily managed to get home around the same time that she would when she actually went to school. She hurried up the steps and burst into the house, barely remembering to take off her shoes when she went through the front room. "Hey Mom, I'm back."

Her mother's voice echoed from the kitchen. "Hello, do you mind coming in the kitchen? We have a guest today."

"Alright." Lily put her shoes on the shelf next to the door and stood up. Her mother didn't have guests often, and most of the ones that did come around were from the church. However she had seen a few of the members from the church go down to the 'adult meeting' earlier. Her heart began to beat harder as the only other answer popped into her head. Rounding the corner she went into the kitchen and nearly cursed out loud as she was proven right. "Hello, Tsukuda-sama."

The man turned from the counter to look at her, his eyes softening when they landed on her. "Lily-chan, how was school today?"

"Good, thank you."

He looked her up and down, and act that made Lily wriggle uncomfortably. It was beyond coincidence that every time she skipped school he happened to be at her house. If Lily didn't know any better, she would have thought that he was stalking her. "It looks like you didn't get paint all over yourself today."

"Ah, we didn't have art."

"Speaking of which I heard you were looking for a job." He said. "Tomoyama-kun was kind enough to tell me recently, but from what your mother was telling me, you haven't found one."

"It's just been slow going," She said. "I'll find one eventually."

"Would you like to work for me then?"

She could already imagine Shinohara telling her to take the deal, and that they could finish the case faster if she did. But did she need to put herself in that type of danger since they were at the meeting? Then again she needed the money, the sooner she payed off the parents the sooner they'd quit hounding her for a job, and the more she could study. "What type of job is it?"

The man's face perked up a bit. "It's just modeling for my paintings. I don't sell my art, but I do try to improve as much as possible." He turned to Clair. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not!" Lily had to bite her cheek to keep from scowling. "Lily is a beautiful girl, she'd make a lovely model for you, Tsukuda-sama."

"Good, then is it alright if I request her presence today?"

"I don't mind."

Lily shook her head. "But Mom I need to-"

"Lily," Her mother put her hands on her hips, the dish rag hanging loosely from her fingers. "Tsukuda-sama doesn't have to pay you to model for him. In the real world you don't choose when you work, understand? So go change out of your school clothes and go with Tsukuda-sama."

Lily obediently left the kitchen, clutching her school bag close to her chest. She was happy to be getting a job, but she was still expected to go to Juuzou's house later. She couldn't do that if she was stuck at Tsukuda's house.

"Oh, and Lily-chan, please bring a spring dress with you."

"Yes, Tsukuda-sama."

She slipped into her room and shut the door. When she didn't hear anyone call her again she quickly stripped out of her school uniform and into a casual pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt. She also took out the spring dress Tsukuda requested, storing it away in an extra backpack she had stored at the bottom of her closet. Staring at the small bag, an idea began to form in her mind. She was bound to be sitting around for a few hours playing his model, she could pretend to get sick or something, that way she could escape to Juuzou's. Depending on how late it was when their meeting finished, she would either go back home, or call her Mom and tell her she was staying with Tsukuda. Her mother would never argue that point since her 'god' was telling her child to stay with him.

She grabbed her night clothes and stuffed them in the bag, and threw in her toothbrush and a few other staples. She zipped up her bag and went back to the front of the house, her mother and Tsukuda had drifted to the living room. He had put on his shoes, and had a jumble of keys in his hand.

His head turned towards her the moment she entered the room, seemingly noticing her immediately. "Are you ready?"

"Y-Yeah."

* * *

Tsukuda lived on the far side of the eleventh ward, and close to a train station that Lily could easily take when she was ready to leave. The neighborhood wasn't that bad, mostly a place you would expect a newlywed couple to settle down at. Small houses wedged close together, with no yard to speak of, and a school close by. Tsukuda slid out of the car and before Lily had a chance, he opened the door for her. Lily muttered a thank you as she followed him to the door, keeping her bag close to her chest. "Please excuse the mess, I'm afraid everything is out of order and torn apart. I've been away recently and have had no time to clean any of my messes."

"It's alright."

After a moment he managed to open the door and Lily followed behind him. She wasn't sure what it was she was expecting when he invited her over. She supposed it she wouldn't be too surprised if there was blood splattered on the walls, bones hidden under the table, and a person chained to the bed. Instead she found herself in a streamlined house that had paint supplies scattered all over the floor, paintings of different animals and people hanging on the walls, and even more canvases stacked haphazardly in different corners of the room. He hurried through the room and pushed the white couch against the wall. "You can change your clothes in the bathroom, it's down the hall to the left."

"Okay."

Lily slipped off her flats before picking her way through the living room. By the time she made it to the other side of the room she had almost tripped enough times to make an anime heroine roll her eyes. Going down the hall she quickly found the bathroom and slipped inside. There was nothing special about it, just the tub, shower head, and a rack on the other side of the room with a towel hanging up. She quickly changed into a mint green dress and went back into the living room. Tsukuda had moved the couch and had put a stool in the middle of the room. There were multiple long necked clear vases set around it in a circle, all of them filled with a dozen white lilies.

"Just sit on the stool with one leg crossed over the other." Tsukuda didn't even look up from his canvas that was set up parallel from her, a pair of thick rimmed glasses now covering his gray eyes, and a pallet of paint in his hand. In his other hand was a bottle of yellow oil paints that he was carefully squeezing onto his pallet, and there was a thick paintbrush behind his left ear. When she brushed past him he looked up, but frowned and gestured to her legs. "Please take off your stockings."

"Huh?"

"Stocking resonate with winter and coldness don't you think?"

She stared down at her legs before glancing back up at the ghoul. "I guess..." She fought the urge to roll her eyes when he smile at her, instead focusing on getting out of her stockings. It wasn't often that she went without something covering her legs, resulting in them being slightly paler than the rest of her limbs. When she was out of them she balled them up and set them on the abandoned couch.

"See, that has more of the effect that I wanted."Tsukada said, putting down his tools and the like on a low table. He went over to Lily and guided her to the stool, once she was sitting he helped her cross her legs. One foot balancing securely on the stool, the other crossed over it with the foot tipped down in a fashionable manner. He then took the dress and rolled it up until it reach her knees, the rest of it flowing around her. "It may not be a natural pose, but it is still far more lovely than anything I could make up with my head."

His hands traveled down from her knees to her calves, his long nails scrapping at her skin, leaving pink lines. When he reached the middle of her right calf she flinched, gaining his attention. "Even this scar, as large as it is, will help make my painting more beautiful. You shouldn't hide it from the world, doing so only drowns out you." He sighed and stood up. "I think you're perfect."

Lily wanted to add as a meal to the end of his sentence, but decided against it as he went back to his paint stand. For the next few hours Lily did her best to remain still as Tsukuda painted her in complete silence. She had never seen too much of the ghoul, but every time he did come around he seemed tired and stressed. This time, however, his face was relaxed and shoulders almost slouching as his brushed whisked about on the canvas. She wondered if he was always this way when painting, or if he was more relaxed since who he was painting was in front of him. Maybe he would be more relaxed if she was writhing on the ground with his kagune in her stomach and her blood splashed all over his canvas. The sick thought almost made her laugh, and she had to hold her breath to stop it, a move that irritated him and he told her to relax her shoulders again.

* * *

When the ring of a grandfather clock from somewhere in the house chimed eight times, Lily decided to speak up. "Um, I'm sorry Tsukuda-sama, but may I go home now?"

The man blinked and looked up from his painting. A smudge of green was on his nose, marring his pale skin and making him look more like a witch thanks to his sharp features. "I'm nearly done with this one, are you sure you can't stay a few more hours?"

At least he kept to the standard 'artist obsession' that she had read so often in books. A thought that Lily saved away for the next time that she had to venture up to his house. "I'm sorry, but my Mom will be worried. Do you have my number? You could just call me whenever you need me again."

"Would it be appropriate for a grown man to have your number?" He asked, though he was already taking his phone out of his slack's pocket. "People would talk."

"Um, I don't think anyone would mind unless they searched my phone."

"Oh, of course."

Lily read him the number, and he called her so she could save his. When she was done she picked her way out of the room and went to change her clothes. When she was finished she pulled out her phone and sent a text to Juuzou, letting him know that she was on her way, before sending another text to her mother to tell her she was staying with Tsukuda. She made sure to sound as apologetic as possible, and a bit whiny, to make it sound as authentic as possible. Almost immediately she got a text back from her mother, giving her the green light and telling her to be respectful and all the aldultish things that she was obligated to tell her.

Lily slipped her phone into her jacket pocket as she left the bathroom. "I told my Mom, I'm on my way, Tsukuda-sama!" Her eyebrows furrowed as she entered the living room to find no one there. The house was silent though, and she noticed that the shoes at the front of the door were gone. "I'm leaving now, Tsukuda-sama!"

When nothing happened she edged away from the door, and picked her way through the living room. When she got to the hallway she ripped opened the door opposite the bathroom, revealing a small bedroom. There was a futon shoved in a corner, some clothes tossed all over the floor, and a desk set right in front of the window. It was a strangely plain room, even though the other room had portrayed him as a lover of art and color. She picked her way across the room and went to the desk and opened up the many wooden drawers. Inside were just the usual office supplies, nothing that she needed to bother Shinohara with. As she put away a stapler, one of the pens in her hand fell and rolled over to the bed. Cursing under her breath, she went over and picked it up, being careful not to disrupt the green blanket on the floor. A flash of pink caught her eye, it wasn't a color that she had seen much around the man's house, and it stood out further in the plain room. The only colors she had seen so far being shades of brown, black, and the puke green blanket on the floor. Valentines day was a a little over a week ago, maybe he had gotten a letter or something from some girl?

"Shinohara's rubbing off on me." She muttered as she grabbed the corner of it from out of the blankets. Apparently it was a soft material that was too thin to be a blanket or even pillow case, and when she managed to pull it out, it was no bigger than her hand. She brought the piece of fabric closer to her face, eyes narrowed as she took in the heart and candy print. "Isn't this...Mine?"

She flinched and dropped the piece of cloth when she heard a click from the front of the house, and Tsukuda whistling an upbeat song that sounded suspiciously like a commercial jingle. She didn't even try being careful as she rushed out of the room, kicking clothes to the side and doing her best not to trip. She only stopped long enough to carefully open and shut the door, before flinging herself into the bathroom. She managed to trip over her own two feat, and went crashing to the ground, slamming her newly healed side right into the bathtub. She bit down on her tongue to keep from crying out, but the loud bang had already attracted Tsukuda.

"Lily-chan, are you alright?" She flinched as cold hands roamed her body, she hadn't expected him to get in there that quickly. "Do you need to go to the hospital?"

"I-I'm alright." She pushed his hands away and sat up, the ghoul backing away from her as she did. "I'll be fine after I get some sleep."

"I'm relieved, I wouldn't know what to do if my model was scarred before the painting was finished." He moved aside as Lily stood up, hand clutching her bag. "I hailed a taxi for you, I already paid so you won't have to worry about it."

"Thank you..."

When Lily got to the door she slipped her shoes on and brushed out her skirt. When she felt presentable she turned to Tsukuda and bowed politely. "Thank you very much for the work."

"It's not a problem, I enjoyed it." His face suddenly became stern. "However, I expect you here again tomorrow, I don't think I'll be able to sleep with this unfinished."

"Of course, Tsukuda-sama."

* * *

When Lily initially got in the taxi, the driver had started to take her towards her own home, however she quickly demanded to go to Juuzou's address. She slouched in her seat, fingers playing with her phone with almost jerky and unnoticed movements. It had been nearly a half hour and Juuzou hadn't answered her text at all. It was actually very unlike him, surprisingly enough, Juuzou usually answered a text within ten minutes of getting it. She was surprised by this behavior at first, but this didn't encourage her to engage in more conversations than she had to. She could chock it up to his phone still turned off, but she didn't think Shinohara would allow him to do something so irresponsible. So did that means something happened to them? And if something did happen, would she still get her recommendation by the CCG for college?

Her eyes narrowed as the taxi pulled up outside the shoddy apartment complex. She grabbed her bag and slipped out of the car, after making sure there was no one that could sneak up on her, she quickly paid the taxi driver the missing amount. The man barley even managed to take her money before he stepped on the gas and revved off, nearly hitting her in the process. Not too concerned, she turned on her heel and hurried up the steps, tapping in a name as she did so. Her heart pounded inside her chest and her breath was coming out in shaky pants. When she got to Juuzou's level she clicked call, and put her phone to her ear, half listening to the phone and half listening to the apartment that she had just stopped outside of...

* * *

 **Review Replies:**

 **Tamila: Thanks! I really though people would find my short and rather concise chapters boring, but I'm glad you like them. Also, I never understood how CCG executions/raids/things could happen in just a week, I'm sure it takes a long time to actually gather evidence and everything unless you're a genius. Oh my gosh, that is the thing that I hype about the most! Even now, I wonder if I'm beginning to push their relationship along too fast, especially with how Lily reacts towards the end of the chapter. Well, in that regard this chapter will be a disappointment...**


	16. File 15

**A/N: And here's what Juuzou and Shinohara were up to while Lily was away. This is short because I only want to show what our CCG duo were doing, not introducing other plot points. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Juuzou twirled a knife between his fingers as he watched the crowd of adults casually speaking to each other while putting toys into bags. He glanced over to Shinohara, who was sipping from his coffee mug. They were situated at a cafe parallel to the toy shop, waiting for the church goers to kill people. for an hour they had gone back and forth outside to a truck that had showed up, and had worked on unloading it, and now it seemed that they were organizing everything. It was beginning to look like this entire trip was a waste of time, even if Shinohara had bought him some cake. He groaned and tilted his chair back on two legs, letting one of his hands scrape against the ground. "This is so boring! When are they gonna make their move."

"This is just an observation today," Shinohara said. "even if something was going to happen, we've been order to not engage."

Juuzou groaned again. He hated it when missions went on a stall, that always mean that more investigators were going to be involved. The more investigators involved, the less likely people will notice his hard work. And that meant he was less likely to go up a rank and be given a quinque. Unlike his knives, quinque could do far more damage to a ghoul, making his kills all the more fun. Maybe he would get something with a long blade that would give him more reach...

His thoughts snapped up when the pastor came out of the building. He began walking down the street, but there was no one following him. He took a second to glance at Shinohara who nodded. Juuzou shot up and went down the alleyway that flanked the sidewalk that the pastor was walking down. The man was casually chatting on his phone, whoever he was talking to he greatly respected since his speech was very respectful. Eventually the man stopped outside an open air ramen stand, and sat down and ordered something. Juuzou felt his muscles bunch up and a groan of frustration leave his lips. He leaned his head against the brick building as he watched the man eat his noodles, still chatting on the phone the entire time. Juuzou was firmly convinced that watching ghouls were far more interesting than watching humans. At least ghouls eventually slipped up and killed someone, letting him fight them until they finally broke. Really, anything would be more fun at this point, even listening to Lily's whining.

Another person walked up to the ramen stand and sat down. He was a normal looking middle aged man with rather unremarkable features. Juuzou pegged him as one of those stuffy office workers that you usually saw at the bar; bad talking his boss and saying lewd things to pretty girls.

The pastor put his phone away immediately, not even saying goodbye to the person on the other end. "Ah, Tsukuda-sama, I didn't expect to see you so soon."

"I'm afraid I don't have a lot of time to talk." The man said as he waved for the ramen cook to come take his order. "I have a favor to ask you."

"Anything Tsukuda-sama, I am your humble servant."

"I would like to switch with Tomoyama." He raised a hand when the pastor opened his mouth. "Do not say yes so lightly, truly think about what you are saying. I could make the decision on my own, but I wish to consult you on the matter."

"I..." The ramen cook gave Tsukuda his food before going back to another customer who had just walked up. "I believe that both of you are a good fit. However I would be honored if you were the one to do it."

"You're certain?"

"Yes."

Tsukuda pushed his bowl away. "I'll tell you when it starts then. Good luck with your charity drive, I'm sure the children will love those toys."

Juuzou slipped further into the alleyway when Tsukuda passed him by. When he determined that he was safe, he peeked out again to find the pastor already walking back the way he came. Juuzou followed him back to the toy store and flung himself back into his chair, his head slamming into the metal table with a loud bang. A few customers stared at him, but he ignored it in favor of continuing to slam his head.

"What's wrong Juuzou?"

"They're giving toys to kids."

Shinohara stopped his head mid-slam. "Is that all?"

Juuzou looked up, the bags under his eyes suddenly far more noticeable than usual. "He was also talking to Tsukuda-ghoul, but they didn't say anything really important." He pushed more weight onto his neck and head, causing his hand and Shinohara's to slam into the table. "Can we go now?"

"Not yet, they're loading up a truck with boxes." Shinohara said. "If this proves to be useless, we'll go home right after this."

* * *

Juuzou had to be coaxed from the table and practically dragged to the car as they followed the truck. It was a long boring ride and Juuzou ended up falling asleep ten minutes into the ride. When he was woken up he found that they were in a part of the ward he didn't recognize. It was a quaint little area filled with apartments on both sides of the road, and a small convenience store shoved into the corner. There was almost no trash here, and the people wore nice clothes. He didn't see any kids or pets though, only adults hurrying in the late evening light. He yawned and stretched his body, trying to sit up despite the seat belt that was firmly attached to him.

"The truck stopped?"Shinohara pointed to the truck, it was close to a an alleyway outside a love hotel. "I didn't know kids could stay at those."

His fingers were just itching to take out one of his knives. Clearly the 'toy drive' was just a cover, and something else was happening. Hopefully that something was going to end with him taking on a few ghouls.

"They went up a few minutes ago," Shinohara said. "We're going to just observe, do not engage unless you're found out, understand?"

Juuzou gave a two finger salute with the wrong hand. "Yes, sir!"

They got out of the car and went into the hotel. A woman in a sleezy dress smiled at them and propped herself on the desk. "Hello, what room would you like to book?"

"Oh, Shinohara-san, they have a room that has sweets!"

Shinohara sighed and picked the room, the woman gave up a key with a doughnut key chain hanging off of it. Juuzou took the key away and began swinging the key chain round, causing a swirl of pink to stick out in front of him. They went up the stairs and Shinohara gestured to the next set of stairs. "Go up one more and check around, we meet back here in an hour."

Juuzou gave an affirmative before sprinting up the stairs. He began whistling a tune as he went through the hallway, ignoring the banging noises behind each door. He doubted the church people came for an orgy, and if they did then it was bound to result in a dead body. It was perfect really, going to a love hotel to kill the body or even transport. No one asked questions here, they only required money, and since Juuzou had to give up some of his cash every Sunday and Tuesday, he was certain that the church had plenty to spare. He paused outside a door that was mostly silent, he went over to the door and pressed an ear against it, but quickly moved away when he heard soft feminine moans.

The next three doors proved to be similar, just people quietly having sex. When he reached the end of the hallway he heard talking coming from of the doors. It wasn't anything lewd and explicit like he had heard the last few times, but the pastor talking. He pressed his ear against the door and shut his eyes, concentrating on his quiet voice.

" This is woman has taken advantage of her position and has rped several of her students." He said. "She does not deserve to even live, but as a human I do not have such authority to-"

The world swirled around Juuzou in a flurry of color, before he was met face to face with a tall man. "Why in the hell are you listening in on these people?"

"Ah, well I'm kinda supposed to be here so-"

A heavy metallic smell flooded the room before two blood red wings burst out of the ghoul's back. A shriek came from the room behind him, only helping the smile grow on Juuzou's face. He slipped a hand into his pants and took a knife out, the ghoul didn't even dodge it, but his blue eyes widened and a hiss escaped his lips as it sunk into his shoulder. He slammed Juuzou into the floor, but the boy twisted himself around, letting his right arm take most of the abuse as he kicked the ghoul in the gut. The ghoul let him go and Juuzou ripped his shirt open, taking up more knives in his hands. He threw three, and advanced with three more, dodging punches that the ghoul tried to hit him with.

Getting in close again he slashed at a few tendons, making the ghoul go slack. He stabbed a knife in his kidney, then produced another in order to block the weak kagune. Something slammed into his left, hitting him against the wall. Another ghoul walked up, her hands in her pocket and her wing like kagune out. "You havin' issues with this girl? Don't tell me you're crushin' on her."

"Am not!" The ghoul slammed his foot into Juuzou's stomach, he could taste blood welling into his mouth. "She's just fast."

The ghoul's eyes narrowed and her kagune flung some hardened RC shards at him. Juuzou rolled to the left, using a knife to stab the male ghoul and used the momentum to get into a standing position. The ghoul shrieked and hit the ground, cradling his now stump, his foot inches away from him. The female ghoul's eyes narrowed and she rushed him, fist forward as she readied to take a punch. Juuzou easily ducked and slammed himself forward, sinking a knife into her stomach. He twisted his body around and Stabbed another one into her side and jerked it hard to the left, blood spraying everywhere as he ripped the ghoul's torso open.

"Fuyumi-chan!"

Juuzou pushed the body away from him and turned back to the male ghoul. He twirled the knife around in his hand. "You're still alive? That's good, let's play some more, okay?"

* * *

It truly amazed Juuzou how unasuming humans could be. After that entire fight not only did no one come out to check with all the screaming, the church hadn't even bothered to come out of the room, screaming still going on in there. He happily skipped back to Shinohara though, soaked in blood and a smile on his face. Shinohara stared him down. "They better have engaged you."

"Two ghouls did," He said, buckling up in the car. "right outside the door the church was using. I think they were guarding it, I got rid of the bodies, so they won't know anything happened."

"Except for all the blood and the missing ghouls, right?"

"Yup!"

Shinohara shook his head. "Fine, but did you hear anything in the room?"

"Screaming," He said. "and the pastor said that a female teacher raped her students."

Shinohara frowned, but didn't comment anymore on his find. That was alright with him, he got to kill two ghouls and they were getting along further in the case. Likely when they got back to CCG headquarters they would get to call in a meeting and start a raid. Juuzou had never been in a raid, but he heard they were really dangerous and that you could get promoted if you did something worth mentioning to the higher ups. He yawned and leaned back in the car as Shinohara drove off down the nearly clear highway. It was late, so getting home shouldn't take too long. Then he could take a shower and redue his stitches since they were now covered in blood and starting to expand.

"Hey, do you have your phone?"Juuzou fished it out of his pocket and showed Shinohara his cracked screen. "Call Lily-chan."

He clicked the on button to his phone, but it lit up with a no battery sign. "It's dead."

"Mine too..." He merged onto traffic on another road. "I'm sure she's alright. We're only a few minutes late, so she should still be at your house."

* * *

 **Review Replies:**

 **AlwaysRunning9: You review cut off half way through. XD I was reading the review, and it was almost like a needle stop thing like in those cheesy comedies.**


	17. File 16

**A/N: I'm alive! And also this story isn't cancelled, I was just busy with life and exams. However I finished them recently, thus I updated. I won't hold anyone up anymore, so I hope you all enjoy this new chapter!**

* * *

Lily twisted around when she heard the sharp unsettling laughter that she had become so used to over the last two months. The boy had his cellphone in one hand, and a knife twirling around in the other. Shinohara stood behind him, a sheepish smile on his face. "Sorry about that, Lily-san. I hadn't expected both of our phones to be dead."

The girl's shocked expression slowly faded into her usual blank stare. "It's alright, I hadn't expected anyone to answer the phone anyways." She gestured to the door. "However I didn't think you'd be so late. Did you finish the case?"

Juuzou pushed Lily out of the way and attempted to unlock his door. "Nah, it was just a recon mission. Observe but don't engage…Or something." Growling in frustration he kicked the door, and it finally swung on its rusty hinges. "But you actually came, does that mean you're gonna cook?"

Shinohara let Lily in first before slipping inside and shutting the door behind him. "She'll be able to cook for you in a few minutes, first we need to discuss everything we found during the mission."Juuzou sat in front of his table and set his chin on it, clearly not in the mood to discuss anything. Lily sat across from him to his left, while Shinohara remained standing. "So here's what we know so far. The church is the one doing the sacrifices, and your father, the pastor seems to be conducting them. While the last few murders were in very day to day places, this last one was in a love hotel."

Lily's eyebrows furrowed. "But that completely changes the pattern."

Shinohara nodded. "It does. And when the forensics team goes through later on, I'm willing to bet that the method of death would have changed as well." He gestured to Juuzou. "From what Juuzou told me it seems like your father and a ghoul called Tsukuda are planning something. Whatever it is, it seems your father has a bit of a say in it."

"I guess it's convenient that I work for him then." Lily said, earning Juuzou and Shinohara's attention. "He came by my house earlier looking for a model for his paintings, of course I accepted, but I didn't find anything interesting when I looked through his room earlier."

"Not even a body?"

Lily shook her head. "No, why would a ghoul even keep a body in their place of residence, Juuzou?  
That's just asking to get caught." She took out her phone and waved it. "If you want, I can take pictures and stuff and send them to you."

Shinohara opened his mouth, but Juuzou cut him off. "I wanna go with you, Ri-chan. Tsukuda-ghoul is hiding something important, and you'd never be able to find it."

"Yeah, and how would you know that," She said. "I've known Tsukuda-san longer than you have, and don't act nearly as suspicious as you."

Juuzou sat up but didn't even bother to look at her. "That's how I know."

Lily began to retaliate, but Shinohara cut her off before she could even start. "Then that's final, Juuzou you'll accompany Lily-san on all of her 'jobs'. You'll have to protect her, but also be looking for anything suspicious that could help us close this case, understand." Juuzou merely nodded. "Good, I've got to be getting home now; you both try not to kill each other."

Shinohara left the two of them in the apartment, locking the door behind him as he left. Lily remained sitting where she was, hands clutching at her jacket as she just sat there. Her heart hammered against her chest, and her eyes were narrowed as they stared at the stained table. She didn't move when she felt a none too gentle poke against her left cheek with a jagged nail. "What in the hell is wrong with you?" She heard Juuzou shift, earning her attention. "You know I don't need you to always act like I can't do anything by myself! Tsukuda-san asked me to model for him, that gives me the advantage to look for-"

She hissed as she was dragged up by her arm and practically dragged to the kitchen. "Come on, Ri-chan, you said you'd cook for me!" Lily just stared at him, eyes wide and mouth open like an idiot. Juuzou was outright ignoring her protests, once again just throwing aside what she felt and said as if it didn't even matter. She grit her teeth and wrenched her arm away from him, causing him to look back at her with furrowed eyebrows and his head tilted to the side. "Ri-chan-"

"Don't 'Ri-chan' me!" She snapped. "I know I'm not some super special investigator like you, but you can at least show me some respect and human decency." She gestured to her arm. "That means not pulling me around, ignoring me, or outright trying to hurt me like you always do."

"But I didn't hurt you." He grabbed her again and pushed up her jacket sleeve, showing off the dark skin underneath. "Look, there's no cuts, bruises, or blood."

"But it still hurt." She stressed the final word, hoping that something in his head clicked. "Just because it didn't show doesn't mean it doesn't hurt."

He stared at her for a moment before chuckling to himself. "Then you're just really weak, Ri-chan." He grabbed her again, this time by the hand. "Let's go make cookies, okay?"

* * *

After cooking and then cleaning up, Lily felt exhausted. The day had been a long one, and Juuzou had done nothing but ride her nerves all day. She yawned again, putting a burnt hand to her mouth in an attempt to stifle it. Juuzou was sitting next to her at the table, taking out the stitches in his arms. "Do you wanna take a shower?"

Last time she had stayed, Juuzou hadn't even offered her that much, she wondered if Shinohara had something to do with it. "If you don't mind."

He pointed to a small room off to the side with his seam ripper. "The bath is in there. Don't take too long, I don't like cold showers."

Lily stood up and gathered her bag in her arms before going to the bathroom. It was outrageously small, and looked like it belonged in a horror movie. Everything metal in the room was rusting to some degree, the tiles were cracked, and she was almost sure the shower head would come off if she so much as looked at it wrong. She quickly stripped down and turned the water on; making sure her bag was as far from the water as possible. She used her hands to lather up with soap and washed herself down, before rinsing off and hurriedly throwing on her night gown. Granted she was wet, but she also didn't want Juuzou to bust into the bathroom when he got impatient and wanted to take his shower. She held her bag to her chest as she came out of the bathroom, but stopped in her tracks when she caught sight of her host. His button up shirt was tossed to the floor, and his colorful suspenders hung off the waist of his pants. It wasn't the fact that he was half naked that surprised her, she'd seen plenty of naked men in her time, but it was the scars. There was over forty of them in thick slashes across his back, some of them faded, but most of them looked like ropey brown snakes marring his pale skin.

She flinched when he turned around, and struggled not to look away. "I'm done in the shower."

He wordlessly grabbed a pile of clothes off the table and put them under his arm. As he passed by he grabbed one of her long locks of hair and pulled, forcing the curl straight. She hissed and tried to back up, but he pulled harder on the lock of hair. "Don't mess with my stuff."

"Alright, jeez." She moved to touch his wrist, but he pulled harder on her hair, making her raise her voice. "I get it, please stop, Juuzou!"

He let her go with a chuckle and went to the bathroom. When she heard the pattering of water coming from the faucet, she went to the open bedroom and peeked her head inside. The room was small and had a bed pushed against a dingy wall. There were no posters, books, or anything to decorate the room. Just his bed, a drawer under a window, and some clothes scattered across the floor. She backed away from the room and sat down in front of the table, laying her head on the thread littered surface. She had no intentions on sleeping on the floor tonight. The only reason it worked last time was because she had fallen asleep studying. This time she had nothing to distract her from the cold floor, and not nearly enough anxiety to ignore the cricks in her neck and back.

She lifted her head when the bathroom door opened, and Juuzou sauntered out. One hand covered his mouth while the other cradled his clothes. "G'night, Ri-chan."

"Um, Juuzou." He turned to look at her, his hand still covering his mouth. "Is it alright if I made a pad on the floor?" His eyebrows furrowed, either he didn't get what she was saying, or he was confused as to why she was asking. "I just want an extra blanket so I can sleep on the floor."

Juuzou removed his hand and glanced back to his room before shrugging. "Nope, don't have any extras."

"Well I'm not sleeping on the floor."

"Then sleep outside."

Lily's eyes narrowed at the comment before she glanced to Juuzou's room. The bed was a twin sized bed, but she was sure the two of them could fit. Juuzou was fairly skinny, and even though Lily wasn't the thinnest branch in the world, if she slept on her side she'd be fine. "Look, why don't we sleep together then, there's plenty of room in your-"

"No."

"But-"

He shook his head, water droplets fell out of his shaggy hair. "No. It's my bed you don't get to sleep in it." He stretched out his arms. "There's plenty of room on the floor."

"If cook you some breakfast will you let me?" She had quickly figured out that Juuzou was almost as easy to bribe as she was. His penchant towards eating anything and everything sweet was probably the only thing she liked about him. "I'll make pancakes."

His eyes narrowed, and he pulled on his lip, clearly used to messing with the string that usually sat there. After a few moments he nodded his head, though the scowl was still there. "Fine, but you have to cook!"

Lily nodded solemnly. "Scouts honor."

* * *

As it turned out, Juuzou was an incredibly light sleeper. Any movement Lily made resulted in him grabbing her wrist to make her stop. By morning Juuzou had grabbed her waist and held her under him, practically pinning her to the bed with his full body weight. While Juuzou slept peacefully in such a position, Lily was sore and her lungs burned. The investigator looked like he barely weighed anything at all, but apparently he had super bones, or incredibly strong muscles, even if they weren't very apparently on his body. Lily groaned as she put her head on her desk, an arm looped around her waist. Doing anything at all at this point was torture, all she wanted to do was go home and get some sleep.

"Mc'Knight-san." Lily's head lifted off the desk to face her teacher. "Class has let out for the day, or were you too busy sleeping to notice?"

Lily straightened up and looked around. Mrs. Oshiro was right; all the students had vacated the classroom. She placed a hand on the desk and forced herself up, throwing her backpack over her less sore shoulder. She shuffled over to the teacher's desk and took some work papers that she could give to Sana, who was out sick with a fever. Once they were securely in her backpack she practically waddled to the entrance of the school, just to find Tsukuda waiting for her. He was chatting with the art teacher while leaning against his car. His shoulders were stiff and his tone clipped, as if he was annoyed by the perky old man.

"Um, Tsukuda-sama?" His eyes shifted to her, and his shoulders seemed to relax. "You're here to pick me up?"

The ghoul nodded. "I though that it would be easier to pick you up on my way home from work. Less...Inconvenient."

Lily just nodded, while her fingers furiously tapped on her phone, telling Shinohara about the sudden change in plans.

* * *

 **Review Responses:**

 **AlwaysRunning9: XD I really can't imagine Juuzou liking or even managing to participate in a covert mission, hence why I threw in that fight scene.**

 **Eph1027: Lily just turned sixteen juuust before the beginning of the story. It's mentioned in a chapter, but I can't even remember which one anymore.**


	18. File 17

**A/N: Hello everyone! I'm back with another chapter, and this one has actual romance development. I know, the world must be ending. Anyway, I'll stop here so you guys can read.**

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Lily's nose wrinkled as she entered Tsukuda's house. The harsh smell of chemicals burned her lungs, and left a harsh pine smell that made her want to sneeze. The house itself had changed as well, everything was neatly put away, and there was a new couch shoved beside the window. This one was black and made of leather; she could practically see the furniture store shine. The only thing that remained the same was the easel and painting sitting in the middle of the room, along with the vases full of flowers and stool.

Tsukuda took off his shoes at the door. "I know you don't have the dress, but that's perfectly fine, I took a picture of you last night in it."

Lily paused in the doorway, taking off her own shoes. "Actually, I packed the dress in my bag this morning; I was going to come here right after school anyway." Tsukuda's eyes widened at her statement. "I noticed how eager you were to finish, so I wanted to make everything as easy as possible for you."

"That was very kind of you."

Lily shrugged. "You're the one paying me." She pointed to the hallway. "Do you want me to change into my dress now?"

Tsukuda nodded and went over to his easel, picking up his paints and things out of a clear crate. "Yes, today I'll just be doing some touching up to the painting and putting in the finer details. Hopefully it won't take me too long to complete."

Lily hummed as she opened up the bathroom door and shut it behind her. She quickly stripped out of her school clothes and into the dress, making sure to keep off her stockings this time. Just like the day before Tsukuda positioned her on the stool, fussing with her until she sat almost identical to how she was yesterday. He then went over to his easel and picked up a brush, and began swiping the brush across the canvas. However, unlike yesterday, Lily was far stiffer and wasn't even paying attention to the artist. Every so often she would glance out the window, half expecting Juuzou to burst through the door, knives in hand and demanding to know what Tsukuda's master plan was. She pressed her tongue inside her cheek to her herself from laughing. Even though that was really a 'Juuzou' thing to do, she was sure that he was busy with the investigation.

From what she could gather, they were very nearly done. All they needed to do was catch her father in the act of killing someone, or gather up the camera data that they still hadn't managed to pin point. Once they did that the case would be closed, she'd get a recommendation from Shinohara, and her she could put this all behind her. Maybe she'd even go to college for criminal justice, or at least something involving the psychology of criminals. From what she was learning from this case, criminals seemed to think differently than the rest of the world. Whenever she listened to her father's sermons, he honestly sounded like he was doing the right thing. Even Mrs. Tachibana sounded utterly convinced that she didn't do anything wrong, and that she was more upset about the fact that her kids had been taken from her.

And Tsukuda, he honestly sounded like someone who believed that he was sent from heaven in order to punish the sinners. In fact, she'd never seen any of the arc-angels break the law, and they always attended all of the charity runs. Heck, they helped out the homeless during the last winter storm, and always been adamant in humans taking the 'narrow path'. Even if it was all an act, that act had to accomplish some type of goal. Perhaps it was just normalizing the idea that ghouls were over humans? That was something that was rammed into their heads every Sunday. Ghouls came from God, as such humans should listen to the ghouls and their chosen servants. If you didn't listen to the ghouls then you couldn't be protected, and you were eventually punished.

"Lily-chan, could you please relax your face."

She jumped, almost completely forgetting that Tsukuda was even in the room with her. "Sorry, I think I'm getting a cramp from sitting for so long." It was true, her butt was going numb and her knees were sweating. "Can I get up for a minute?"

Tsukuda pursed his lips and stared at his painting before nodding. "Yes, but only for five minutes." Lily jumped down, nearly knocking one of the vases over in the process. "Are you thirsty? I could get you some juice."

Lily nodded. "Orange juice please." She dragged her school bag off the couch, and took out her wallet. "And if you could get me something to eat, I'd appreciate it. I haven't eaten much today and I'm starving!"

She handed him a few yen, which he quickly pocketed. "Do you have anything specific in mind? Human tastes really aren't my forte."

She shook her head. "Just surprise me; you're doing a lot for me as it is."

Tsukuda turned a dark red, and muttered something to himself as he hurried out the door. Lily checked out the window, and when he went down the block, she hurried back to Tsukuda's room. Just like the rest of the house, it seemed that it was completely cleaned up; however he hadn't gotten new furniture for this room. She peeked into the closest, and pressed her hand into the darkness, just to scream as something cold dragged her into the closet. Her nose slammed into something hard, and the overwhelming scent of sweets and sweat filled her sore nose. A warm breath puffed over her ear, and the grip tightened.

"Please tell me that's you, Juuzou." Her voice barely escaped her throat, it was as if her words were getting twisted in with her hammering heartbeat. "Please tell me you're just investigating or something."

"Shinohara-san sent me as soon as you sent that message," His voice was just as quiet as her's, though she could detect irritation in it. "I had to skip my lunch break too."

She let out a sigh of relief and allowed her full weight to rest on him, noting that his entire body stiffened with the simple action. So Shinohara did get her message, but to send Juuzou in such a manner must have meant that he was suspicious about something. "Hey, how did you know where to find me?"

"Shinohara had someone to look up where this ghoul lives." He pushed her off of him, causing Lily to stumble out of the closet. He followed her out and began to look around the room, opening drawers and picking through them haphazardly.

"You could do that with humans too?"

"If they have a name that's registered." He stopped as he flipped a painting over, a smile forming on his face. "Wow, Tsukuda-ghoul must really like you, Ri-chan."

Lily peered over his shoulder, and had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep her emotions in check. On the canvas was a picture of an ocean and she was standing on a shell with her long hair covering her most private parts. Next to this painting was another one where she was much younger and sitting inside a flower and holding an apple up to the sky. She pushed Juuzou's hands away and partly flipped over the next canvas, unveiling the image of her sitting cross legged in an open field surrounded by lilies. With each canvas she turned over she only managed to find more paintings of herself at different ages doing something childlike, usually surrounded by flowers, and in some shade of red and brown.

She wasn't sure if she should be flattered that Tsukuda was clearly obsessed with her, or concerned that he was planning on making her his next meal. She crossed her arms and pressed her chin into her collar bone, desperately wishing she had her jacket on right then. "Is it normal for ghouls to paint things they want to eat?"

Juuzou shrugged, and let all the canvases fall back into place. "Ghouls are predators, so they stalk their prey until they finally eat them," He said. "but sometimes they think they're humans too. So they'll do things that humans would do too."

"So why hasn't he eaten me yet?" She moved aside as Juuzou went to the main room. Just like in the last one he began poking around, clearly not caring that Tsukuda was due back any minute. "I've known him since I was eight. He could've eaten me at any time."

The investigator opened up the clear crate and smiled as he began to dig through it. "Lookie what I found, looks like he's a ghoul after all~!"

"I thought we already established that." She flinched when he threw a bottle of paint at her. It was a dark red color that almost matched Juuzou's eyes, she bent down and picked it up, some of the paint smudged on her fingers. "Juuzou, unless you have some condemning evidence-"

A pale hand snatched the bottle away and opened it, splattering more of the stuff all over her hands. It was cold and slimy, and the stuff had a metallic tint that made her stomach heave. Her eyes widened and she looked up to Juuzou, half expecting him to be laughing at her, instead he was licking the substance off his fingers. "Mr. Ghoul's painting with blood."

Lily opened her mouth to say something, but only a wheeze came out. Juuzou clicked his tongue and tossed the paint bottle back with the others, leaving Lily to just stand there. On some level she'd always been aware of ghouls, and how they could really kill you if they wanted, but this was probably the most disturbing thing she'd ever equated with them. Wordlessly she left the room and went down the hall to the bathroom and turned the tub on with her wrist, and allowed her hands to get scalded by the hot water. She didn't even flinch as she cleaned the blood off her fingers, watching the clumps of red go down the drain. It made her wonder if that was the real reason she was here, so Tsukuda could get painting her out of his system, then use her blood for his next obsession.

"Juuzou, you don't think-"A loud bang answered her. Lily scrambled up, barely remembering to turn off the water. When she got into the living room she found Tsukuda standing over Juuzou, who was sitting on the couch, and staring at him with a rather blank look. Everything in the room was back in order though, and there wasn't a trace of blood on Juuzou's hands. "Oh, hello Tsukuda-sama." She gestured to Juuzou. "I hope you don't mind, we're supposed to get ice cream today after school, but you picked me up instead."

Tsukuda turned around to look at her, his face just as blank as Juuzou's. Lily half wondered if Juuzou was merely making fun of the ghoul. "I don't mind that you have guests, but I would have liked to have known beforehand."

She bowed. "I'm really sorry, I promise it won't happen again."

Tsukuda pat her head, and handed her a plastic bag full of candy and a carton of orange juice. "It's fine, really. Now why don't you introduce me to your friend, I believe I've seen her at the church on occasion."

"Tsukuda-sama, this is Suzuya Juuzou, Shinohara-san's nephew…" She ignored Tsukuda's apologies. "Juuzou, this is the arc-angel, Tsukuda-sama. Speaking of which," She smoothed out her dress. "should we finish the painting?"

Juuzou made a loud groaning sound and sank deeper into the couch. "Awe, but I want ice cream!"

Lily took out a bag of sour gummies and tossed them to him. "This should hold you off for a bit, at least until the painting gets done."

Juuzou ripped the package open, and shoved a whole handful into his mouth. When Lily was sure he wasn't going to complain again, she allowed Tsukuda to position her on the stool again.

* * *

Lily stretched her body out on her bed as soon as she got home that evening. She ended up taking Juuzou out for ice cream, against her better judgement, and had to deal with him on a sugar high. None of her questions on ghouls ended up getting answered, and she was dirt broke until Tsukuda payed her on Sunday. She yawned again and wrapped herself in her blankets, feeling oddly empty inside and feeling extremely tired. However it wasn't the physical type of tiredness, it was the emotional kind, the type that there really wasn't a cure for. "Juuzou, is there a reason you followed me home?"

"I'm tired," He was on the floor, with his head resting on her bed. "and I got locked out of my apartment today."

"You didn't pay your rent?"

He shook his head. "The Landlord said I couldn't come back until I apologized for stringing up her cat. It bit me and wouldn't let go. Shinohara-san would get upset if I killed it, so I strung it up to the ceiling."

Lily could have sworn she was just over at his house this morning. However, she could easily see Juuzou getting himself into all types of trouble within a few hours. He was just that childish, if not completely insane. "You know, if my parents find out you're here, they'll get upset, I can't have a guy here after hours."

"Why?"

"It's just the rules." She stretched herself up a little and tucked a pillow under herself. "Didn't you have those types of rules with your parents?"

"Mama never let me see anyone." He said. "She didn't like it when anyone came to my room. She said that I was her's and that no one could take me away."

"Oh…I'm sorry."

He just shrugged. "You didn't do anything, so you shouldn't have to worry about it, Ri-chan."

Now that he had brought it up, Juuzou never really poke about his parents. He and Shinohara were so close, that she often times had to actively remember that the two of them were partners for the CCG, not really uncle and nephew. And now that he spoke about his mother in the past tense, it was safe to say that she was dead. She wondered if the woman was killed by a ghoul, she'd heard that a lot of the CCG members were orphans and their parents killed by the ghouls.

She rolled onto the other side of the bed, making Juuzou's head fall off her legs, earning her a dirty look. "Hey, don't be mean to the person who'll let you sleep with them."

He stared at her for a moment before he stood up and stripped himself of his shirt and pants, leaving himself in his boxers. He then crawled into the bed, yanking a corner of the blanket and covering himself in it, before settling down as far away from her as humanely possible. "Hey, Ri-chan."

"Yeah?"

"I don't need your pity."

Lily rolled over so she could properly look at him. "I know, but that doesn't mean I can't repay a debt. You let me sleep with you, now it's my turn to give up some of my bed."Juuzou stared at her for a few moments, before reaching up and flicking off the light. "Night, Juuzou."

"Night…Ri-chan."


	19. Chapter 19

So you're probably curious to know where the next chapter is. Well, my dear readers, it's not coming. At least, not in the form that you all have begun to recognize as this story. I personally feel as if the over all quality of my story has been dropping, and in the last few months, I've improved tremendously when it comes to grammar and the balance between description and info dumping. As such, I will no longer continue this story in its current form, and will be rewriting it completely. I cannot, in good conscious, tell others that they need to improve upon their work, if my own work is not the best that I can possibly make. That would make me a hypocrite and, surprise(!), I hate hypocrites. For those of you wondering, the new story is already posted on this site under the name and summary:

Title: Children of Flesh and Bone

Summary: Humans either fear what they don't understand, or worship things that they envy. While the majority of Tokyo feared the ghouls, there's a small faction that worships them as 'angels'. Beings meant to save us from ourselves, and bring us a period of peace. Once the CCG catches wind of them, they send Shinohara and Juuzou to infiltrate the church, and bring them down from the inside.

I truly hope you all enjoy the new work, and will continue with me on this journey.


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